How to Train a Dragon Rider
by Crusader288
Summary: While the Vikings of Berk end their war with the dragons, life goes on for the southern viking clans. When one moves north to attack them, Hiccup, Toothless, and the others will need the help of a new ally to stop yet another war.
1. Chapter 1: Boys and Their Dragons

Oddly enough, this is the kind of story I usually don't read, where (SPOILER ALERT!) Hiccup discovers another Viking tribe that has dragons. I was thinking about some cool aerobatic maneuvers I wanted to write about, and this came to fruition. The first chapter turned out longer than in any of my other stories, so maybe I'm doing something right. Or maybe it's just that this is my first non-crossover.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own DreamWorks'_ How to Train your Dragon_. Obviously, my name is not DreamWorks.

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

**(Great Title, I know)**

Chapter 1

**Boys and their Dragons**

* * *

Hiccup and Toothless were caught in the joy of flying.

This was one of the few days they had the sky all to themselves. All the other dragons had been out earlier, and had grown tired of lugging their riders around. Most of the villagers were still learning how to fly their dragons, and they tired quickly.

But Toothless was a Night Fury, and his stamina was nearly unlimited, barley hampered by the accustomed weight of the young viking on his back.

Hiccup felt the thrill of going into a high, steep dive, and he whooped in exhilaration.

He felt his insides lift as they went into free-fall, then felt them being pulled down again as they pulled out just over the water's surface. They finally climbed and turned toward the village, beginning a leisurely glide.

Hiccup had gotten used to using his false leg in flight, and could control Toothless' red tailfin just as well, if not better, than he could before.

Hiccup looked over at the setting sun. It was low over the horizon, and just beginning to turn red.

Hiccup thought he saw something silhouetted against the colorful sky – he squinted, and thought he could just glimpse a dragon and a rider, heading away from Berk. But that was ridiculous – even if there were dragons about, they would be headed back towards Berk, not away from it.

Hiccup started seeing spots from staring at the sun, and disregarded the sight.

* * *

The next day, Hiccup was at the town hall for a meeting. "Learning a leader's place in politics," his father said. To hiccup, viking politics seemed to consist of making important decisions while the rest of the vikings drank beer.

One of the vikings had recently been sent to gather news on the other, southern, viking clans. He had almost completed his report.

"The fire destroyed most of their food crops, and winter is just approaching. Won't be long before they attack someone for the food they need."

A viking shouted from the crowd, "What does this have to do with us? If they think we're still fighting dragons, they won't bother us. We wouldn't have much food anyway."

From another part of the room, Hiccup heard a viking yell, "Even if they come, they won't stand a chance. We have the dragons on our side now; they can't beat us _and_ them."

That got Hiccup's attention – while he had been dozing for most of the meeting, his thoughts now went to the thing he saw yesterday. He was sure it had been another rider, but that night, he had seen no one else land.

"Wait!" He said, before another viking could take his turn.

Everyone in the room turned toward him.

"I. . . I saw someone riding a dragon yesterday, but they never came back to Berk. Maybe the other clans _do_ have dragons, we just don't know about them."

There was a pause in the meeting room.

And the other vikings burst out laughing.

"Ha! First he trains a dragon, and then he claims someone _else_ has first!" One person said.

From another: "Lad, you obviously didn't realize how surprised we were when you brought that Night Fury home!"

The meeting continued on.

* * *

Afterwards, Hiccup, his father, and Toothless were walking through the central street of the village, going home from the town hall.

"Hiccup, you can't just speak out like that." Stoick was scolding his son. "They'll think you're crazy if you interrupt for something like that again. There _are_ no other tribes with dragons. Everyone else is to far south, and besides, we've been fighting them for generations. There's no way they could have figured out how to ride them so fast." He finished.

Hiccup replied, "I know, dad, but I really thought I saw something." He paused. "I couldn't just keep quiet about something like that."

Toothless growled in agreement.

Just then, they passed another viking boy, about Hiccup's age. His gaze followed Toothless as he passed. That wasn't unusual, Hiccup and his dragon were famous, and many people gazed at both Hiccup's bad leg and Toothless' red tailfin.

Hiccup realized that he didn't recognize the boy, which was odd. Being the age that he was, he should have been involved in dragon training.

"Hiccup, if you want to be chief one day, there's one thing you'll have to learn." Stoick continued. "You have to learn how –"

"Dad, who was that?" Hiccup interrupted.

"Who?" Stoick asked.

Hiccup turned around and pointed at the retreating figure. "Him."

Stoick said, "I don't know." Then he yelled, "Hey! You!"

He kept walking.

Stoick said again, "Excuse me!"

The figure turned around, and Hiccup definitely didn't recognize him. Even if the boy hadn't been in his dragon training class, he should have seen him around the village sometime.

Hiccup felt Toothless flinch, and he heard him sniff the air towards the boy. The night fury took a step towards him, and –

He immediately took off running. Stoick yelled, quite ineffectively, "Stop!"

Toothless jerked, and began bounding after him. Hiccup, who had been leaning on his dragon for support (he still wasn't completely used to his new leg on the ground), was pulled along with him.

The boy was fast, and he skillfully ducked under and around the vikings that took up the street. Some of them had heard Stoick's shouts, and tried to grab for him, but he easily dodged out of their way as well. Then they had to dive out of the way of the night fury chasing after him.

"Stop, Toothless! Stop!" Hiccup screamed as he was pulled along.

When he finally got the night fury to slow down, he climbed onto his back. He didn't have his harness, but Toothless was saddled up, and they wouldn't have to fly far to catch the boy.

They took off, and spotted the boy still on the main street. Hiccup saw Astrid up ahead, near the outside of town.

"Astrid!" He shouted.

At the sound of her name, she turned he head towards Hiccup, now riding just above the nearby rooftops.

Hiccup yelled, "Stop him!" And pointed to the running boy, just leaving the street they had found him on.

Astrid heard Hiccup, looked over at the commotion. She moved to cut the boy off. Hiccup and Toothless were catching up quickly.

The boy met Astrid head on, and nimbly dodged to the right. She kicked out a leg, and tripped him.

The boy went down, but rolled with it, and was quickly back on his feet. He kept running, heading for the cliffs on the south side of Berk.

As she ran after him, Astrid grabbed an axe from the hands of a passing viking. Hiccup hoped it didn't have to come to that.

The boy was almost to the cliffs, and from there he would have nowhere to go. Hiccup kept waiting for him to turn left or right, but he never did. Maybe he was going to try and run right alongside the cliff.

Astrid was screaming at him, "Stop! Come back here!"

The boy didn't stop, he kept running. Right over the cliff.

There was a sound – It was familiar to Hiccup, but he couldn't remember from where.

Toothless' head shot up, and Hiccup saw a dark shape swoop down. The boy fell right on top of it, and began riding it – Hiccup could see now that it was a dragon.

Astrid was screaming – she had followed him off the cliff, and was holding the axe above her head, like she intended to slice them in half.

Before he was even completely in the saddle, it seemed, the boy reached out and grabbed the handle of the axe, just below the blade. Astrid fell below the dragon, held high above the water by only the axe handle she was holding on to.

The dragoon swooped low and commenced a hard turn, throwing Astrid into the sea. The dragon kept going, and the boy swung the axe as he was moving, impaling it horizontally in a wooden dock post a few dozen feet away from Astrid.

Hiccup and Toothless flew down to get her, but Astrid yelled, "What are you doing? Go get them!"

She was right, Hiccup realized. Astrid could take care of herself. Toothless turned around in pursuit of the strange rider.

Though he was already a distance away, the night fury closed the distance quickly. Hiccup saw the rider look over his shoulder, and his dragon picked up speed. They headed for a thick group of the stone pillars that surrounded Berk

They began a complicated series of turns and loops, trying to lose Hiccup and Toothless in the rocks, but their dragons were equally matched. Hiccup wasn't wearing his harness or his safety line, but neither was the other boy, and he seemed to be doing just fine.

Suddenly, they pulled up and began to climb steeply. Toothless followed, and they continued for several seconds before the lead dragon began to slow down. Toothless seized the advantage, flapping even harder for altitude.

The dragon spread its wings and rapidly decelerated. Toothless did the same, but slightly too late, and overshot.

When they passed, Hiccup and the other rider's eyes locked to each other. His head swiveled to follow Hiccup. Hiccup got a good look at the boy, but also at his dragon.

It was a night fury.

This all happened in a fraction of a second, and the other dragon swiftly closed its wings and began hurling for the surface, Toothless in hot pursuit.

Hiccup tried to process it in his head – the island had never seen another Night Fury, though there were many different dragons of all the other races.

It wasn't quite the same as Toothless – It had the same proportions, but Hiccup could see now that it was a dark blue, instead of Toothless' jet black. Maybe he had seen wrong, and it really was another species of dragon. But it sure _looked _like a night fury.

The other dragon spread its wings again to slow down, and Toothless responded quicker this time, slowing with it.

The rider turned to Hiccup and winked. Suddenly, the dragon pulled its wings against its body again. They broke through the water's surface, disappearing under it.

Hiccup adjusted the position of his prosthetic and Toothless pulled up, and the two began to look around, searching the water for any sign of their runaway prey.

Toothless saw a splash as they broke the surface, several hundred feet away. He immediately dove after them, hurling a fireball that exploded on the water's surface. A warning shot.

Toothless pulled up alongside them, and Hiccup looked over, opening his mouth to speak; But before he could, the other boy jumped off his dragon – and, to Hiccup's surprise, landed on Toothless' tail. Toothless was not expecting this, and jerked at the sudden addition of weight.

Hiccup looked back at the boy in surprise, and everything seemed to slow down.

The boy was hanging from his dragon's tail, jamming the cables of his red tailfin to their last position. He saw the boy give a two-fingered salute to him, then release his Toothless' tail, straightening his body out before he hit the surface.

As soon as he hit the water, Hiccup was snapped out of his trance. His dragon hesitated for a second, unable to decide who to go for, then deciding on the fleeing dragon. The boy wouldn't be going anywhere fast.

When they turned toward his dragon, the boy, unseen, began to swim toward one of the nearest stone pillars.

While they had been equal in flight before, without the added weight of a rider, the other strange night fury slowly pulled ahead. Hiccup finally gave up, and watched the shape fly away towards the path of the sun, beginning to fall in the sky.

When they returned to the scene of the pursuit, they could find no trace of the boy. They continued to circle through the maze until the sun was low, when they decided that they wouldn't be able to find him even if they continued searching.

When they landed back at the village, they were greeted by Stoick and the other viking children. Hiccup told them what had happened.

While he was gone, Astrid had swum over to the axe and stood on the handle until a viking ship had come to rescue her. Stoick had asked around the village, and there were no other children missing.

They concluded that the boy must have been from another village, and that he had been sent to scout them out. That also meant that at least one other tribe had discovered how to train and ride dragons.

They all agreed that this was not good.


	2. Chapter 2: Aggressive Negotiations

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 2

**Aggressive Negotiations**

* * *

The vikings prepared for war.

Ships were being built twice as fast, to make up for the many that had been lost fighting the Red Death. Those that were seaworthy went to other nearby isles to mine the scattered pellets of metal that filled them, bringing them back to be turned into weapons. Double sentries were placed at all the lookout points. It was much like it had been during the harvesting season, back when dragons had raided their food supplies regularly.

The young vikings began learning how to use weapons from dragon back; Hiccup was doubly pressed, for when he wasn't practicing with Toothless, he was at the forge with Gobber making weapons. Toothless helped by keeping the coal pit hot, with small bursts of his fire. This put an end to their recreational flights for the time being.

They continued searching the pillars where they had lost the spy, but they found nothing. Hiccup suspected his dragon had returned in the night and made off with him.

After a few days, the vikings had set up a lookout post high on the peak of the island, where only the dragons could reach. Every night, Snotlout's monstrous nightmare would carry new lookouts to the fort, watching out for enemy dragons.

On one such day, Astrid and Hiccup were training in the arena. She was trying (unsuccessfully) to teach Hiccup how to fight, man-to-man. He wouldn't have stood a chance before, but with his false leg, he was hopeless. Even more hopeless, anyway. Toothless and Astrid's deadly nadder watched, bored, from the sidelines.

Right now, Astrid was yelling commands to Hiccup, as she threw blunted spears at him.

"Dodge left!" She yelled as she threw the spear.

It barely missed, and Hiccup was off balance when she yelled her next command, "Roll right!"

Hiccup had just gotten some weight back on his good foot when he was slammed into by the spear, and was forced to the ground.

Hiccup clutched his stomach where the spear had landed, while Astrid sighed in frustration.

Before she could complain about what a terrible viking he was (again), Toothless lifted his head, and the deadly nadder squawked.

A second later, the duo could hear the sound of loud drum beats coming from the village – the signal of an attack.

They ran out of the arena. Astrid asked, "Where are they?"

Hiccup looked over to the outpost on the mountain, where a large signal torch had been lit. The viking posted there put a blanket over it, causing the flames to apear and dissapear, while Hiccup watched the flashes.

Long flash. . . Long flash. . . Short flash. . . Long flash –"Southwest!" Hiccup said. They mounted their dragons, and climbed quickly as they returned to the village.

They spotted a speck in the distance, the village directly between them and it. As they neared their merge, Astrid wielded her spear. It was one of the blunt ones she had been hitting Hiccup with, and she hoped to knock the boy – Hiccup could now see that it was the same boy that had escaped – off his dragon. If he was wearing a harness, his dragon should be able to slow him as they fell to the ground.

When they were close enough, the boy yelled, "Stop! I just want to talk!"

Hiccup hesitated, and looked at Astrid. She was riding straight for the boy, obviously not swayed by his message.

She yelled her war cry as she closed, holding her spear out in front to ram the boy. His dragon had caught an updraft, and drifted in place.

When Astrid was almost upon him, the boy's dragon rolled over and dived out of the way, Astrid and her nadder flew over the top.

He yelled again, "I have a message for you! Stop!"

Hiccup brandished his own spear and they charged after the strange night fury.

With Hiccup and Toothless now behind it, the dragon went into a sharp turn. As Toothless followed, Astrid barreled in from above.

The boy turned around and opened his mouth. Before he could say something, however, Astrid's spear hit home, and the boy was knocked off his dragon. The safety line snapped, and he fell to the ground, a short distance below. He rolled to a stop several feet away. Astrid and Hiccup landed nearby, and the viking girl jumped off her dragon and charged him.

The boy looked up to his circling dragon, and yelled, "Ceara, Fly home! Go!"

He looked at Astrid, and said, "Please, we don't have to do this–"as she approached and began to jab with her weapon, he rolled to her left side, behind her. "I just–" Astrid swung around with her spear, and he ducked underneath it. "–want to talk–"

Hiccup dismounted Toothless. Though he knew he would be next to useless in a fight on the ground (as Astrid had so thoroughly proved earlier), Toothless might be able to help her.

The viking girl continued her furious offence. She swung, jabbed, and spun her spear, but the boy kept outstepping her. Hiccup looked back, and could see vikings from the village running towards them, holding their weapons.

Beside him, Toothless pounced, and tackled the boy after he had jumped out of Astrid's reach. As the friendly vikings reached him and began to run for the boy, Hiccup looked up. The boy's dragon still circled, but when Hiccup locked eyes with it, it turned away and fled from Berk. It still looked very much like a night fury.

* * *

Stoick had the boy tied to a chair and put in one of the few unused huts in Berk. There would be a twenty-four hour guard in the hut with him, armed with a wooden club. There was also a padlock on the door, in case the boy managed to overpower the guard.

It was late at night, and Stoick was trying to get answers out of him by staring him down. It was not working.

Stoick blinked. "Eight!" The boy said, finally blinking himself. "That's two more than last time!"

Frustrated after the last hour of dealing with the unintimidated boy, Stoick stood up and left the hut. He slammed the padlock closed, loud enough for the prisoner to hear it, and turned to address the crowd that had gathered outside the door.

As they listened expectantly, Stoick said, "Town meeting tomorrow. I expect everyone to be there." he turned to walk to his house.

* * *

The next day, everyone rose with the sun to go to Stoick's meeting. As they walked there themselves, Stoick spoke to his son.

"Hiccup, maybe you could talk to him? He's not like any prisoner I've ever seen. We need someone who understands psy. . . psy. . ."

"Psychology, dad." Hiccup finished for him.

"That's the one." Stoick confirmed.

"Sorry, but I really don't know what to do. Maybe his tribe will send a search party." Hiccup suggested.

"So we spot the ship, take it down, and bring the fight back to their home." Stoick said. "I like it!"

They entered the meeting hall.

When all the vikings had settled down (at least as much as Stoick knew they were going to), he banged his hammer on the rim of the fire pit. Any talking there still was ceased immediately, and the meeting began.

With his son beside him, Stoick declared, "First, we're going to start with what's on everybody's mind. The prisoner." He looked around the room. "We need to get him to cooperate. Any suggestions?"

"I have one," a teenage voice said.

Stoick and the other vikings looked around the room. The voice had come from Stoick's direction, but it was not Hiccup's, and the other children were at the opposite end of the meeting hall.

"Up here." The voice said again.

The vikings looked up, and gasped. The massive wooden pylons of the meeting hall were decorated in a diamond pattern, and the boy had put his hands and feet into the gaps between the shapes and _climbed _up through them high above their heads.

"I thought I might have a chance to talk to you from up here. Very good craftsmanship, by the way." He said.

"Someone get a ladder!" Stoick yelled.

"On it!" Gobber said, pushing his way back through to the door.

"I figured as much." The boy said.

"How did he get out?" Someone in the crowd said. "What happened to Golem?" Someone else said, referring to the guard who had been with him.

"I got lucky there," the boy replied, "he fell asleep, and I took a dagger off him to saw myself out. Then I tied _him_ up, and took the window out of its frame. Took me most of the night. Someone might want to go help him."

"Got the ladder!" Gobber yelled, bringing one in over his shoulder and pushing his way through the crowd again.

As he made his way to the pillar, the boy said, "I put that there. You might not want to-" Gobber stepped on the first rung of the ladder, and fell to the ground as it broke. He tried the second rung, but it broke as well. He looked closer, and noticed that there were small cuts through the center of each one.

"It's like that for the first ten rungs." The boy said.

"Someone go get another one!" Stoick shouted. Gobber turned the ladder around, but without the top ten rungs, it wasn't nearly long enough to reach the boy. In fact, he had climbed just out of reach of the long side bars of the ladder, so they couldn;t knock him down either.

"Let's start with introductions. I'm Yoseph, how are you?" He gestured to the gathered vikings. Everyone stared at him, remaining completely silent.

"Alright, down to business then. I have a message from my tribe. You may have heard of the fire another tribe, the Jordanes, had in their fields. They're sending their fleet to attack Berk."

The room exploded, as all the vikings below him yelled out at once: "Why would they attack us?" "How can we trust you?" "Since we came here, we've barely had food for ourselves!"

"_LISTEN!_" the boy yelled at them. They quieted for a second, and the boy seized his chance. "Everyone's heard the rumors of dragons up here, so no one has bothered you. But these people are desperate. They're too proud to take any food we give them, and they're too weak to attack any of the other tribes. They figure that with the dragon attacks, you would be weak enough to conquer."

"Why should we trust you?" one of the vikings said, "You could just be telling us this so you can escape!"

"I _already _escaped." Yoseph said. "That's why I didn't tell you earlier! If I could have escaped, which I did, why would I come back and lie to you?"

The vikings looked around at each other. "Maybe you just want us to get you off the island! If you had left, you would have been trapped here!" one suggested.

"Oh, I could leave if I wanted." He replied, ominously.

A loud shriek echoed through the cavern, and a dragon climbed down the pillar. It had been hiding in the shadows higher up – though it was not as dark as Toothless, it did blend in well with the dark ceiling.

The boy, somewhat awkwardly, climbed onto the back of the dragon. It spread its wings, and vikings backed away in a circle from the landing zone. Stoick stayed right where he was.

The dragon landed gracefully in front of him, and the rider on its back held out a hand. He said, "Will you trust me?"

Stoick looked at the hand, then at the boy. He turned to the vikings in the hall. Then he looked at Hiccup, who had stood next to his father when the dragon fell.

Stoick looked back at the boy, and took the hand. "I believe you."

The vikings in the hall cheered, breaking the immense silence that had engulfed them.

Hiccup looked over at the other viking teens. He could see she was trying to hide it, but there was a smile on one side of Astrid's face. It was funny how having an enemy turn into an ally could do that.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Just so you know, the dragon's name is pronounced _Sear_-a. I'll explain her species next chapter – this is where we leave the movie's canon.


	3. Chapter 3: A Lesson or Two

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 3

**A Lesson or Two**

* * *

The next day, the boy – Yoseph – and the other viking children were in the arena. The children (mostly Hiccup) were asking him questions, while Astrid tried to hit him. She had taken the head off a spear to reduce the weight, and was attempting to whack Yoseph with it while he answered questions. So far, Astrid had only managed a few good hits.

"I counted twenty-four ships." He said to Hiccup, but his eyes stayed on Astrid. He ducked under her swing, and shook his head. "Too much weight on your left foot. I saw that coming."

"How many men were in each?" Hiccup asked. He was amazed at the ease with which Yoseph was talking to them. In the short time he had known him, the boy had never seemed the least bit anxious, worried, or unsure. Remarkable, considering that he was in a strange village, surrounded by strange people, many of which had attacked him in the past. And one who currently was.

"About ten. Most of them had a full set of oarsmen." He continued to avoid Astrid's strikes. He held up his hand and grabbed her spear before it struck the side of his head. "Not enough weight."

Now that they had gotten to know each other, Hiccup had begun to warm to Yoseph. His personality changed little when they had changed from foes to allies – looking back, it was remarkable how calm he had been then, too.

After his dragon, Ceara, had screeched in the meeting hall, Toothless had come running. After Hiccup had managed to calm him down and convince him that she was a friend, he had been fascinated by her. Right now, she was watching Yoseph dodge Astrid's blows, and would occasionally glance over at Toothless, watching from behind her. Whenever she did this, Toothless would look away.

Yoseph had explained that she wasn't a night fury, like Toothless, but she was of the same species. In his home, he said, they had many furies, but Toothless was the first black one he had seen. Ceara was a blue-grey, one of the rarer kinds.

Fishlegs murmured some incomprehensible babble: "approximately one-third fleet twenty four sea attack twenty seven sea defense thirteen lookout capability. . ."

"They also have crossbows on the four lead ships, in case they meet any dragons." He barely dodged out of the way of another of Astrid's strikes, and picked up a shield from a rack behind him to block her follow-up downstroke. "But I don't think they expect riders."

"Cheater!" She yelled.

He smiled at her. She kept hitting him, now lifting the shield with both hands to block her strikes.

Fishlegs continued mumbling, "Plus seven air defense front three air defense rear. . ."

"I couldn't get any closer without them spotting me." Yoseph finished.

"Hey, I have a question." Snotlout said, "How many dragons do you have on your island?"

"Last I checked, seventeen." He answered. Astrid swiped low, and swiped him off his feet. "Good hit!" He said, and rolled away.

"Do they all have riders?" Hiccup asked.

"Let me rephrase that." Yoseph replied. "We have seventeen dragons _with_ riders on the island. The others come and go as they please. We give them food, and try to convince them to _let_ us ride them. We've been having more luck recently than in any previous generation"

"So if you, like, get a dragon to like you, you get to ride it?" Ruffnut asked.

"Exactly." Yoseph said. "And we have a school to teach you how to fly and fight with them."

That was one of the more interesting things to Hiccup, but he didn't get a chance to ask about it. Yoseph lifted his shield to ward off a blow, but Astrid hit him on the opposite side. She spun around, and hit him in the chest with the other end of the spear. He fell to the ground.

"Now you've got it." He said.

"My turn now!" Snotlout exclaimed.

They quit long before he scored a hit.

* * *

The next day, Hiccup said goodbye to his father. Stoick would have to go to Yoseph's tribe (They called their island Soare) and negotiate a way to work together to stop the Jordanes from attacking Berk.

He was taking one of the viking's remaining ships. He hadn't learned how to ride a dragon yet, and the island was too far away for any of the dragons to carry both him and another rider for that long. He briefed Hiccup about what to look for in the tribe when he got there.

"Try to look for any gaps in their defenses. Even if they say they're our allies, we want to know if there is any way to sneak in."

"I'm sure we'll be fine, dad. Yoseph seems friendly enough, and I doubt he'd go to this much trouble to lie to us." Hiccup said, not entirely convinced by Stoick's counsel.

"I'm serious, Hiccup. We fought dragons for generations, and this boy has shown us a lot less evidence than the dragons have since they changed sides. I want you to keep your eyes open." Stoick continued, "If you think anything is wrong, don't hesitate to come find us."

"Don't worry, Dad. Toothless will take care of me." The dragon, which had been lying down, stood up at the sound of his name.

"Hiccup, come on!" Astrid yelled, as she and the other children, let by Yoseph and Ceara, prepared to take off.

"Good bye, Dad" Hiccup said. Stoick pulled his son into a somewhat awkward embrace, and then walked towards the docks.

"I'd better go make sure Gobber hasn't sunk the ship yet." Stoick said.

The other dragons had already taken off. Hiccup climbed onto Toothless, who opened his massive wings, taking off straight up. They easily caught up to the others.

* * *

After several hours of flying, the vikings were getting very bored. Ruffnut was constantly asking, "Are we there yet?" to which Tuffnut would reply, "Shut up!"

After several repetitions, Yoseph said, "Would you two shut up if I gave you something to do?"

"What could we possibly do while riding a dragon?" Snotlout asked.

Yoseph replied, "Enjoy the view. Read a book. Watch the sunset."

Snotlout looked at him incredulously.

"–or–" Yoseph continued, "I could teach you a few things."

"Like what?" Snotlout asked.

"How to ride dragons."

"Ha!" Ruffnut exclaimed, "We already know how to ride dragons."

"No, you can ride _a _dragon, one at a time. I can ride several." His dragon suddenly banked, moving right next to the twins' dragon. He unhooked his safety line, and jumped over to the Zippleback. Snotlout's monstrous nightmare was flying to their left, and he jumped again over to that. He reached his hand out and grabbed a piece of Snotlout's saddle, holding himself on.

"Ha!" Snotlout twisted around and said, "I could do that."

Yoseph calmly said, "Only because it looks easy." He gestured to his dragon, which had moved up beside them. "Go ahead."

Snotlout looked hesitant, but he unhooked his line, and, shakily, stood up on his dragon. He looked over to the nearby fury.

He looked over at Yoseph, and his uncertain expression hardened. He jumped.

He hit the dragon, but landed belly-first and slid off. They were flying high, and at this altitude, landing on the water would kill him. All thoughts of courage abandoned him, and he screamed loudly.

Ceara shot down like a rocket, coming up underneath him and stopping his freefall. Snotlout desperately gripped the saddle.

When the dragon pulled as close as it could to his monstrous nightmare, he cautiously stepped over. He quickly hooked his safety line back into his harness. Yoseph was laughing from behind him, "I didn't think you were really going to do it! I have to admit, you are some of the most spirited vikings I've ever met!"

Snotlout's face was still white.

"Don't worry; it scared me witless the first time too." Yoseph said, beginning to calm down.

"You've fallen before?" Astrid asked, surprised.

"Many times." He replied, "But Ceara's always come through for me." His dragon growled lightly in agreement.

Meanwhile, Hiccup was silent. He had fallen once before, too – but when he did, Toothless couldn't save him. He would never be able to jump from dragon to dragon, like everyone else could. Not with his bad leg, and Toothless' missing fin.

"I want to try!" Tuffnut cried.

"Let's go lower, so Ceara won't have to save you all." Yoseph said, lightly chuckling. He jumped over to his dragon and put it into a shallow dive, and the rest of the vikings followed.

Well, Hiccup reasoned with himself, he and Toothless shared a connection that none of the others did. If he couldn't do the same aerial stunts as the others, he would just be the best flyer.

He silently committed himself to his new goal.

Nearly an hour passed as the viking children jumped from dragon to dragon. They fell many, many times, but with their dragons flying low and slow nobody was hurt. The only ones who did not join in – besides Hiccup and Toothless – were Fishlegs and his gronckle, who had both been taking intermittent naps.

They all had to stop and circle constantly to pick up those who had fallen, and they lost a lot of time, but they had left early in the morning, and Yoseph was confident they could still make it to his island before dark.

While he was thinking about his new commitment, Hiccup's dragon was doing most of the flying, Hiccup instinctively adjusting his foot as was needed. When Astrid – who fell the least, except for Yoseph – landed on the dragon that was flying closest to Hiccup, Toothless eased closer. The dragon fixed his gaze on the young viking girl, concerned about his rider, who had been silent for a large part of the time they had been jumping. Astrid looked over, seeing the concern in his eyes.

She shrugged to him and mouthed something along the lines of, "What am I supposed to do about it?"

Toothless jerked his head back in the direction of his rider, who was staring to the horizon on the opposite side.

Astrid shook her head.

Toothless nodded back, and again gestured to his rider.

Astrid put her head back and silently sighed. Toothless glided closer.

Hiccup jumped as he felt Astrid land behind him, and Toothless jigged in the air as his red tail fin was jerked by Hiccup's foot. Astrid put her arm around Hiccup to hold herself on.

When they had steadied themselves, Astrid withdrew her arm. She said, "Hey. . . Hiccup."

"Astrid." Hiccup replied.

"You okay?" Astrid asked. She sounded concerned.

"Yeah," Hiccup said, "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" It was obvious to Astrid that he was hiding his disappointment.

"I. . ." Astrid didn't know what to say. She glared at Hiccup's dragon, and Toothless quickly looked away.

She continued, "Don't worry, Hiccup. No one thinks less of you. You saved us all when you got that." He knew what she was talking about.

Hiccup looked at his prosthetic leg. "I know. But I-"

Toothless suddenly jerked to the right, and Astrid hugged Hiccup to stay on. Fishlegs had fallen on his first attempt at leaping, and Toothless had waited until the last moment to turn. Astrid glared at the dragon again, but he avoided her gaze, acting like nothing had happened.

Just then, Yoseph called out to everyone, "Alright, that's enough. We have to get back to flying, or we're never going to make it."

Everyone jumped over to their dragons while Fishlegs struggled to mount his.

Astrid turned back to Hiccup. "Don't worry, Hiccup." She moved her face closer to his.

She hesitated, then turned around, and jumped to her nearby nadder.

When everyone had returned to their original positions, Ceara deftly flew over to Toothless' side.

Yoseph said, "Hiccup, follow me." Ceara began to climb.

Toothless followed. Hiccup asked, "What are we doing?"

"You'll see!" He yelled back.

When they had reached the peak of their ascent, Hiccup asked again, "What are we doing?"

"Racing." Yoseph replied. "Try to keep up!" His dragon quickly dived, picking up speed.

Hiccup was confused for a moment, but when Toothless dived after the other fury, he realized what was happening. He decided that he would win this.

They closed on Yoseph and his dragon. When they were wingtip to wingtip, Ceara looked over, and began flapping faster, accelerating even more. Toothless mirrored her.

They continued diving until they were right at the water's surface. The two racers danced around each other, each dragon and rider trying to outdo his opponent.

They quickly shot past the others, and the pillars that seemed to accompany every large isle began to rise up ahead of them. Ceara turned, and began twisting and turning through them. Toothless, not to be outdone, followed.

Hiccup enjoyed every moment of it; this was just what he needed. As they commenced a sharp turn, Toothless pulled harder than Ceara, and Hiccup crouched low to his back to avoid being scraped off by the rock face beside him.

Toothless pulled slightly ahead, and began to lead the chase. They continued their maneuvers until the island's cliff loomed before them, and Toothless pulled up. He had maintained the lead.

When they were above the cliff, Hiccup looked down in the dimming light to see lanterns, illuminating a village in front of them.

"Welcome to Soare." He heard the other boy say.

Yoseph smiled. He had held Ceara back at the very beginning of the dive, but after that, it was a real fight. Hiccup and Toothless really were a formidable team.


	4. Chapter 4: Dragon Training

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 4

**Dragon Training**

* * *

When they had landed, Yoseph had showed them to a pair of empty houses, and went to speak to the chieftain of the village.

The next morning, Hiccup woke up long before everybody else. Toothless was still asleep after the long flight, curled around the hearth, and Hiccup let him be. He decided to take a look around the village. He put his prosthetic leg on, and left the building.

When he walked out the door, he was startled by a "Hey," from above his head. He looked up to See Yoseph on the roof of their hut.

Hiccup recovered his breath, and said, "Oh. Hey, Yoseph. " He looked around. "Where's Ceara?" Hiccup hadn't known him for long, but if he had learned anything from their short acquaintance, it was that the boy's dragon was a constant presence.

"I have no idea. Probably out where all the other furies go." Yoseph replied, laying back and looking at the sky.

"She leaves the island?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah, not very often, but usually she disappears for a little while when we get back from a long flight. Most of the furies leave every once in a while, even after they've chosen a rider." He jumped down from the roof, bending his knees low to absorb the impact. "You want to see the village?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Sure."

Yoseph began walking uphill, towards the highest house. "First, let's introduce you to Kleave. He's the chief."

* * *

Kleave's house was not unlike Hiccup's own, back at Berk. It was the chief's hut, a little sturdier, a little higher in the village and closer to the meeting hall.

Yoseph knocked at the door, and it was answered by a huge viking. He said, "Yoseph. And you must be Hiccup. You're in luck, you two, I'm just having breakfast. Care to join me?"

They walked in, and Kleave led them to a large table. He dropped a huge bowl of meal in front of both boys – it was more than Hiccup knew he could eat, but he didn't see any signs that the chief had a child, and reasoned that he had no smaller portioned tableware.

"Sorry boys, but I can't stay long. There's a broken pylon at the dock, and I want to have it fixed before your father gets here." He winked at Hiccup. "Can't have him think we're some low-class vikings. First impressions and all that."

Hiccup smiled timidly.

"Wait. Yoseph, what time is it?" Kleave asked.

"It's just about time, sir." Yoseph replied.

"Well then by all means, don't let me hold you back!" The chief exclaimed, "Go show Hiccup the dragon training ground!"

Yoseph smiled, and led Hiccup outside. They walked through the village, which was just waking up. Hiccup noticed some of the people stare at his leg as they passed, but no one stopped them. They came to a large open field, and Hiccup could see a long, one-story building at the far end of it. Yoseph stopped, still some distance away.

"What do you think?" Yoseph asked.

"This is your training ground?" Hiccup asked.

"A small part of it," Yoseph said, grinning widely, "Most of it is up there." He pointed to the sky.

"So where are the dragons?" Hiccup asked.

Yoseph looked at the sun. "Should be coming out just about. . ."

Suddenly, the long barracks opened, and a dozen dragons leapt out. Riders ran out after them, and quickly jumped onto their place on each dragon's back. Without any commands or signals that Hiccup could see, they unfurled their wings, impossibly close to one another, and took off in a tight formation. It was amazing to Hiccup, to see so many furies in perfect synchronization.

". . . Now." Yoseph finished.

When they reached altitude, the twelve dragons spread into arrow formations of three each, according to color. Two of the groups were solid colors, one completely red and one completely blue. Two of the formations, however, had one of each primary color, and were led by a grey – it was hard to tell from the distance, they had climbed fairly high, but to Hiccup they both seemed slightly red.

The young viking looked over at Yoseph, amazed at the tight coordination that each dragon and rider had. The boy was still grinning, looking up with him.

"It never ceases to amaze me, when they do that." He said.

Hiccup looked back up, to see that each formation was heading towards a different point at the compass. He asked, "Do you do this every day?"

"No, it's a rare drill. Today just happened to be the day we did it. Great coincidence, huh?" Yoseph replied. The way he was smiling, Hiccup didn't believe it to be much of a coincidence at all.

A large viking stepped out of the barracks behind the dragons, bellowing after them.

"Quartsy, I saw that! How many times have I told you, you've got to pull up faster!"

"That's Rauge, the dragon instructor." Yoseph said. "We tell him we can't hear him when we're in the air, but his voice carries. You'd be amazed at how far away he can yell from." Then Yoseph cried, "Ceara!" when he saw his dragon walk out next to the instructor. The blue-grey dragon bounded over and tackled him, licking his face, and then let him back up.

The man who had left the long house walked toward them and yelled, "Yoseph, mount that dragon of yours and go get Weavil's flight! They're flying off course again."

Hiccup hadn't noticed the man look up since the dragons took off.

Yoseph smiled and gave a mock salute to the man. "Yes sir!" He said. He put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Good luck." He quickly climbed onto Ceara and took off. They went the short distance to the longhouse first, presumably to pick up a harness for Yoseph.

Rauge walked over next to the remaining boy and said, "You must be Hiccup."

"Yes." Hiccup replied.

Rauge held out his hand, and shook Hiccup's vigorously. "I've heard good things about you, lad, good things." Letting go of Hiccup's hand, he continued. "I hear you're the one who managed to convince the Berkians to stop killing dragons. And then you kept on flying even with–" He looked at Hiccup's missing leg, "–that."

"Yeah." Hiccup said.

"Understand you got rid of the big queen dragon, the size of an island. Never would 'a though there was one like that, but then, we don't get many of the other species here. Just the furies."

Hiccup replied, "You sure know a lot about us. . ."

"Course I do! Been talking with your little friend all morning!" He laughed, "Though I can't quite say she's as little as you!"

"Astrid?" Hiccup asked, knowing that she would be the only one awake early enough to get here before him.

"Yup." The viking man replied. "Put her to work cleaning the stables. The dragons are wonderful about leaving their waste outside, but you wouldn't believe the stink that piles up after a big supper of fish!"

Hiccup wondered how he had convinced Astrid to do that – they were good friends, and he couldn't so much as get her to pass the salt.

"Where be that dragon o' yours? Still sleeping?" Rauge asked.

"Yes. " Hiccup answered.

"Well, go wake him up!" The dragon master shouted. "We got a training course today, and you won't be missing it after a little flight drowsiness!"

Hiccup wondered when he had become a student," Uh. . ." but though it best not to question. "Yes sir!" He said, and headed to the house to get Toothless.

"And wake those friends o' yours, too!" Rauge shouted after him.

Rauge reminded Hiccup a lot of Gobber, but with a much stronger accent.

People were starting to fill the streets now, and to Hiccup, it looked a lot like his home village; all except for the tight formations of furies that patrolled the skies, much unlike the jumble of different dragons that filled those of Berk.

He hoped that they weren't always so ridged; it didn't look like too much fun. But then, he had never done it before, and Yoseph _had_ said it was a rare drill.

When he reached the hut, he saw Snotlout's monstrous nightmare still sleeping outside. He walked in the door, and noticed Fishlegs and his gronckle still asleep on the floor. Tuffnut and Snotlout were fighting over the last piece of breakfast, and Toothless was watching as the food passed between the two fighting vikings. When he saw Hiccup, he leapt over the table, knocking it and both boys to the ground.

When they got up and looked at him, Hiccup announced, "We're leaving. Their chief wants us to join in with their dragon training class for today."

"What?" Snotlout asked, "But we just woke up!"

"Everyone else is already out." Hiccup replied, "We'd better wake up Fishlegs."

* * *

It was easier said than done. After a solid hour, they had everybody up and on their dragons. Ruffnut joined them outside, and mounted the second neck of the zippleback. Hiccup led them to the dragon training field, and they landed near Rauge. Astrid and her deadly nadder were already there, waiting. Yoseph began calling the other riders down to the field.

When everyone had landed, Rauge introduced them.

"These are the dragon riders from Berk. They will be training with us today. First, let's see what they can do. Who wants to go first?" He asked the crowd.

A girl stepped out of the crowd, flanked by a red-grey fury. "I will." She said.

"Excellent!" Rauge pointed at Astrid. "You and her will have a dogfight."

"What's a dogfight?" Hiccup asked.

Rauge answered, "Lad, have you ever seen a dog?"

"No."

"Well, they're little furry creatures that like to growl and chase each other's tails. When you're in a dogfight, both of those happen a lot. Yoseph!" he said, "Go get some bows and targets for the two ladies!"

Yoseph nodded, and jogged over to the longhouse.

"Now, in a dogfight, you have to get behind your enemy." Rauge explained. "Have you ever shot a bow before?"

"No." Astrid shook her head.

Yoseph returned bearing a shield on each arm and a crossbow in each hand. "Good lad!" The dragon instructor exclaimed as he dropped the weapons on the ground.

He held up one of the crossbows to show them. "What you do is fire these at the shield on your opponent's back." He pointed to one of the shields, outlined in red with a dot in the center, "While trying to protect your own."

The girl began to put the shield on her back, as well as equip one of the sashes Yoseph had brought, which carried extra bolts for the crossbow.

Yoseph walked over next to Hiccup and whispered, "That's Carmine. She's one of the best. Still, Astrid's got a chance, if she can learn quickly."

Hiccup wouldn't be surprised. Astrid's nadder wasn't as powerful as most dragons, but it could turn even faster than Toothless, and had almost as much endurance. And, of course, Astrid would put up a good fight.

Carmine suited up and mounted her dragon, and Astrid mirrored her. Rauge began to explain the rules.

"Astrid, you go to the north peak of the island. Carmine, you go to the southern peak. After that, try to stay over the island, but anything goes. Everyone else will stay away from the fight."

Carmine looked over to Astrid, and smiled. "Let's see what that parrot can do."

With that, her fury took off straight up and began to fly away. Astrid's nadder took off, slower, and headed in the opposite direction.

Carmine's dragon flew quickly to the end of the island, and had to circle and wait for the nadder to reach its position before they flew back towards each other.

This time, Carmine's dragon went slower, and they met right over the field. Carmine dived under Astrid and tried to come around behind, firing her crossbow, but she missed. The nadder turned around, and they began circling each other.

"The bows aren't powerful enough to hurt the dragon or the rider," Yoseph explained, "but they will give you a nasty bruise."

The two continued fighting, twisting in their saddles as they circled, trying to get a shot at their enemy's back. Carmine had reloaded her crossbow, and nocked a new bolt.

Suddenly, Astrid turned sharply and fired at Carmine's back, but missed. The red dragon commenced a hard 180 degree turn, and nearly got a shot in at Astrid's shield. Astrid struggled to reload the unfamiliar weapon.

Carmine's dragon began flying erratically around Astrid, until her nadder dived away. Carmine dived on her tail, and both dragons swooped low over the field, where all the other children ducked out of their way.

The fight continued for some time. Yoseph remarked, "She's doing great! If only she could shoot the crossbow better, she'd have won by now."

After several minutes of fighting, Astrid got above Carmine, and dug into her satchel. She pulled out one of the spare bolts, and dropped it at the red fury beneath her. It missed, and Carmine flew up, beginning her next attack.

She followed Astrid through a turn, and missed her shot. She pulled away to reload, and Astrid followed. While she reloaded, Carmine put her dragon into a climb, and they began pulling away – if Astrid hadn't had her bow loaded, she wouldn't have been able to follow them for long enough.

But her bow was loaded, and Carmine's back was turned to her as she readied her own weapon. Astrid lifted her bow, and carefully lined up her shot. She fired, scoring a solid hit, and Carmine looked back at her, scowling.

The two dragons flew down to the ground, Astrid smiling brightly. The young vikings from Berk cheered as she landed, along with Yoseph. The rest of the crowd joined in.

Carmine landed with the scowl still on her face. She immediately jumped off her dragon and pulled the shield off her back, yanking the small arrow out of it. She walked over to her opponent, and the other vikings backed out of her way. Astrid jumped off her dragon.

When she was close, Carmine yelled, "You cheated!" She stopped in from of Astrid, who stared back impassively.

Then, surprisingly, she held out her hand. "Good match."

Astrid cautiously took the hand, and replied, "Good match."

Carmine smiled wickedly. "I'll get you next time." She walked away.

Yoseph, smiling, walked over to Astrid. "Next time you fight with her, I'd recommend wearing a face mask." He tapped his temple. "It's happened to me before. I _think _she was aiming for the chest."

Contrary to Hiccup's earlier fears, dragon training was turning out to be very entertaining.


	5. Chapter 5: Tribal Relations

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 5

**Tribal Relations**

* * *

Rauge let most of the dragons roam freely, focusing on only one or two flights at a time. He had assigned each of the Berk vikings to a flight leader, save Hiccup, who followed Yoseph between the flights.

Yoseph critiqued the other riders on their performance – sometimes suggesting a new position for their legs, or moving them back slightly in the saddle. While most of them were made in the form of suggestions, they were immediately obeyed, and Hiccup got a feeling that Yoseph was considered just as much (if not more) of an authority on dragon riding as Rauge himself.

When he had finished with the flight, Ceara drifted nearer to Toothless, and Yoseph said, "Follow me, I want to show you something." He steered the dragons toward the northern end of the island.

"Where are we going _now_?" Hiccup asked.

"You'll see." Yoseph said, with the same words as the first time he had challenged Hiccup to a race. Hiccup glanced down at Toothless, and they shared a nod.

They kept flying for a few minutes, waiting for Ceara to dive away again, but she never did. They passed the edge of Soare, and headed for a large mountain that reared up out of the sea. Eventually, Yoseph spoke.

"So, how do you like the school?"

Hiccup answered, "It's amazing. I can't believe you could get so many dragons to work together like that."

"That's Rauge's contribution." Yoseph said. "He's a genius at that sort of thing. Pretty incredible, considering." He stopped talking.

"Considering what?" Hiccup asked.

Yoseph laughed, "That he's never ridden a dragon in his life!"

That was a shocker to Hiccup. "How can he be the dragon instructor when he's never ridden a dragon?"

"Like I said, he's a genius." Yoseph answered. "He came up with most of the new training routines we do. Everyone decided that he'd be the best one for the job, and so far, he's lived up to it. Like I said, we've only recently been having such good luck with the furies, and there aren't as many old riders around as you'd think."

Hiccup though about that for a minute. After a time, he asked, "So what's your role in the school, Yoseph?"

"I correct the actual _riding_." Yoseph said. "Rauge tried to teach me how to yell and scream the formations and exercises at people, but I'm no good at it. I sound like a fool when I try to be a leader."

Hiccup thought back to when he had been teaching the others how to jump from dragon to dragon – he hadn't sounded like a fool then. "So how did you get chosen?" He asked. "Were you just a good rider, and got chosen, like Rauge?"

"Something like that." Yoseph answered.

They kept flying in silence for a few moments, the mountain passing underneath them, and Ceara began to fly lower. Toothless followed closely. "So what are we doing?" Hiccup asked.

"Watch this." Yoseph said. His dragon spiraled down, and landed in a huge hole in the far side of the mountain. Toothless came down, and landed nearby on the floor of the tunnel – it extended into darkness, but Hiccup could tell it was long. Were they going to fly in there?

"I've seen tubes like these with lava flowing out of them." Yoseph said, "But all the ones in this mountain are empty. I've explored them, and this one leads all the way through the mountain, out the other side.

His dragon fired a small ball of flame, illuminating the long, straight tube as it passed though. It disappeared with a pop when it hit the far wall.

"Careful around the turns." Yoseph said, and Ceara leapt forward, spreading her wings.

Toothless leapt after her. The cavern was easily wide enough to hold both dragons, and Hiccup could hear their wing beats echo throughout.

He tried to remember how far away the turn had been, and in what direction, when he saw a wall loom up in front of him. He screamed, and quickly adjusted his leg, pulling Toothless up. When they were clear, Hiccup saw Yoseph's dragon fire another small flame, illuminating the cavern once again, much brighter now that they were no longer in the sun.

He memorized the distance and saw the direction of the curve when the ball flamed out, and crouched lower to Toothless.

"Alright, we can do this. C'mon, buddy." He said. They followed Yoseph and Ceara through the turn, and this time, it was Toothless who fired his flame.

They continued through several tunnels, and Hiccup realized he was enjoying himself. It was a thrill to be in these tunnels, flying dangerously fast, much like it had been the first time that he had flown on Toothless. He whooped, "Yeah!" In exhilaration.

They rounded a turn, and Hiccup could see a bright light ahead, realizing that this must be the last tunnel. Toothless realized it too, and began to flap his wings even faster, trying to pull ahead of Yoseph. They flew out of the tunnel, leaving the catacombs in a place where erosion had punched a hole straight through to the main lava spout of the ancient volcano. Once again, they were slightly ahead of Yoseph.

Behind them, the defeated boy smiled again. Amazing.

* * *

The next day, Stoick finally arrived at the island. When they spotted the ships, Hiccup was riding in a flight with Yoseph again. While the other boy went to go tell the village, he went down to greet his father.

The vikings on the deck cleared the space at the front of the ship, and Toothless landed smoothly. Hiccup jumped off, and went to his father.

He stumbled a little, not used to being on a rocking ship, but he made it. Stoick greeted him, and said, "Did you remember what I told you?"

He nodded. "There's only one harbor within any distance to the village, and there are always dragons in the air, so it would be difficult to sneak up on them." Hiccup answered.

"And at night?" Stoick asked.

"They have lookouts, but I haven't seen all the towers. I'm not sure if there's a hole."

"Well, let's hope we never have to use that then. How is the village? Do they seem trustworthy?" The chief asked

Hiccup thought back to his meeting with Kleave. "There doesn't seem to be any reason not to trust them. They seem nice enough." He answered.

"Excellent. Let's just see for ourselves what we can do with these people.

As the three ships pulled into the harbor, they were met by the chief himself. Kleave grabbed Stoick's hand and introduced himself. He and several of the other vikings followed him through the village to the meeting hall, and the rest stayed with the ships.

The meeting hall at Soare was not nearly as large as the one at Berk, but it was still impressive. It had far walls and a high ceiling, not as big as Berk's, but still massive.

The cornerstone of the place was the centerpiece – where Berk discussed its matters around a huge fire pit, the Soare vikings had an enormous map, covered in scale wooden carvings of all the islands and mountains in the area. Soare was near the center, and Hiccup thought he could see Berk, at the far northern end of the map.

"Let's get down to business, gentlemen." Kleave started. "The Jordanes should be around here." he held a long rod, and used it to point to a spot east of Soare. "If we want to stop them now, we'll have to use our dragons, and the best spot to do this would be here." He gestured to another part of the map, between two mountains that rose straight out of the water. "They have to come through here to avoid the shallows on either side, and it provides an excellent berthing point for the dragons to wait at. It will also make it easier to stop the ships from spreading out, and continuing towards Berk."

The vikings of Berk surveyed the map. "This all seems good," Stoick replied, "but how do you plan on commencing this attack?"

"Yoseph is our best dragon rider." Kleave said, gesturing to the boy. "He'll ride in and give them a chance to turn around. if they refuse, we'll keep smashing up their boats until they do."

"And what if they don't let him go?" One of the men at Stoick's side asked.

Yoseph spoke up, "I've been in worse situations before. I'm sure I can get away from them."

None of the Berk vikings could argue with that. Stoick said, "One last question. You seem to be willing to put your riders in serious danger to help us. What do _you_ get from helping us? Why not just leave us be?"

Hiccup realized that his father was right – the Soare vikings had no reason to help them, unless they had hoped to take payment – and only so long since the end of the dragon war, they still had little to spare.

Kleave looked impassively at Stoick. "You won't just believe we would do this out of the kindness of our hearts?"

Stoick shook his head, and Kleave sighed heavily. "I thought it might come to this."

He stared at the map for some time, choosing his words. Then, he spoke.

"Firstly, do you know what we _do_down here?" He looked at Stoick, who shook his head. "We aren't your average vikings, we don't grow most of our own food. We can't. Did you look around the place? There's almost no forest on the entire island. Just acres and acres of grass."

Hiccup realized that he was right; while Berk was covered in trees and vegetation when you moved inland, Soare seemed to only have small groups of trees. He tried to think back to some of his flights above the island, attempting to remember any large groups of forest, but all he could remember were the huge expanses of grass.

"The soil won't grow anything else, other than the grass. No matter how much you water them, no matter how much you fertilize them, no matter how much sun you get in a year, nothing else will grow." He paused for emphasis. "From what I understand, you vikings from Berk have enough crops to sustain yourselves, and your problem with the dragons was that they stole all your livestock. We have the opposite problem – we can sustain huge flocks on the island, but we can't grow any fruits or vegetables. We Thought we would be fine – until the disease set in."

"What disease?" Stoick's subordinate asked.

"They call it scurvy," Kleave said. "It isn't a killer by itself, usually; but it weakens the body, and makes you susceptible to other diseases. We realized we would have to trade for the fruits and vegetables we needed, not to mention the lumber."

His gaze swept over the vikings in the room, once passing over Hiccup. Then he turned back to Stoick. "You may be wondering what all this has to do with anything. Now, when the furies came, at first we reacted the same way you did. We kept our flocks small and close, but we weren't able to bring down many of the dragons. Then, one day, a fury landed in the village. We didn't know what to do with it, but it attacked no one, so we waited. A boy, a great-grandfather in our tribe who died years ago, gave the fury some food, and eventually, developed a friendship with it. Finally, the dragon allowed him to ride it."

Stoick still stared at the other chief, his face revealing nothing. Kleave continued, "As I said, we had a surplus of meat, and we began to feed the other dragons that came. In time, we had assembled a group of people who started the tradition of dragon riding. They were able to do things no one else could do, and travel quickly from island to island. We began trading favors with other tribes, and in exchange for dealing with their problems, they would give us some of their crops. This is how we survive now."

He stepped closer to Stoick. "Do we expect you to pay us now, for this? Probably not. But eventually, now that your war is over, you will eventually be able to spare some crops for trade with us – if we have good enough relations. This is not just a favor for you; this is an investment in the future of my tribe."

He continued, his eyes still locked with Stoick's. "Now, in this situation, we can do two things. We could let you go home and fight the Jordanes yourself, and have any number of your people _and _their people die. Or, we could send in our riders, who train their whole lives for tasks such as this, and will undoubtedly do it with less bloodshed."

He held out his hand. "Do we have an agreement?"

Stoick looked at the hand, and said, "Your clan has quite a way with words, Kleave. Your rider, Yoseph, did the same thing to me not four days ago."

He took the hand.


	6. Chapter 6: The Ambush

Turns out I was right the first time, and the possessive of a name that ends in "s" doesn't have an extra s. I changed all the previous chapters again.

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 6

**The Ambush**

* * *

Hiccup, Yoseph, and several other dragon riders were waiting at the top of one of the two peaks. All of the children from Berk were participating in the raid, by Stoick's request. Hiccup was in charge of Fishlegs and Snotlout, while Astrid was on the opposite peak with Ruffnut and Tuffnut. They had tried to think of a way to separate the twins, but as they were the only ones who could fly the zippleback together, they had been forced not to. Hiccup just hoped Astrid could keep them from blowing the whole thing.

Yoseph, crouching on the ledge, spotted the first ship masts on the horizon.

"Here they come." He said.

Hiccup watched as they multiplied, becoming a fleet almost as large as the one that had been sent against the dragon nest.

They waited in silence for some time, until Yoseph decided it was time to go. He made an announcement to the riders on the summit. "Listen up!"

The riders all froze, and looked up at Yoseph.

"Remember, wait for the signal. Keep away from the crossbows. And whatever you do, do it carefully, we just want to scare them. We don't want any blood spilled, if we can help it." He looked once more over his riders, and then mounted Ceara. They took off.

He would go in a wide circle, so it would appear to the Jordanes that he was coming from Soare. Hiccup thought again to when Yoseph had said he looked foolish trying to be a leader. Maybe that was the problem – he couldn't be _trying_. He certainly wasn't being a fool now.

When they spotted him, the vikings in the lead ships began furiously working to load their giant crossbows, and point them at the approaching dragon. When they had, Ceara made a quick circle around the formation, and reached them before they could reverse the weapons again.

The dragon landed on the top of the lead ship's mast, and Yoseph yelled from its back, "STOP!"

The bowmen froze, and looked up on the boy riding the dragon's back. Even the oarsmen stopped rowing, forcing the boats behind them to slow as well.

Yoseph looked around the ship he had landed on. "Where is the chief?" He asked.

The crossbowmen snapped back to action, turning the bow as best they could back up at their own mast. Ceara shifted her weight to jump, but held her ground. The men looked to the back of the ship.

The man at the helm held up his hand, and they relaxed slightly. He passed the rudder to another viking, and moved forward to address the dragon rider.

"Who are you?" the chief asked. "And what are you doing here?"

"I am from Soare," Yoseph replied, "and I am here to tell you to turn around."

"Hah!" The viking exclaimed. "And what shall you do to us if we refuse? Sink our ships?"

Yoseph nodded. "If it comes to that."

The vikings in the ship around him laughed, but he continued. "The vikings of Berk are not as weak as you think they are. You'll be crushed anyway, we might as well do this before anyone gets hurt."

"Tell me, you ambassador from Soare." The chief replied, "If just one boy riding a dragon can sink our fleet, how can the Berkians _not _ne weak after being attacked by them for generations?"

Yoseph looked back, calm, but with a stern expression. "You underestimate the vikings of Berk. And what a dragon rider can do."

They had almost drifted into the pass now. Ceara reared her head back, and the men at the crossbow scattered, thinking she would release her flame on them. However, she only fired a bright ball of fire into the sky.

"Turn back." Yoseph said, just before she took to the sky. One of the bows from another ship fired at her, too late.

"There's the signal!" Hiccup cried. The riders, already mounted on their furies, began taking off and diving for the fleet. Carmine, aboard her dragon, went for the ship that had fired on Yoseph. The vikings in it all dived into the water before her dragon launched a white hot ball of fire at the craft, ripping it apart in the explosion. Her dragon landed and steadied itself for a second on the wreckage, enough time for Carmine to fire her bow – not one of the weak crossbows they used in training, but a powerful recurve bow – at the chief's ship. The arrow imbedded itself into the crossbow, causing the operators to cower away from it.

Ceara poked her head out of the water near the ship on the opposite side, and fired. A hole was ripped open in the side of the boat, and a ploom of water explode up beside it. The vikings abandoned ship. Ceara disappeared below the waves again, coming back up farther away.

The viking chief watched as the ships around him were destroyed. He ran foreword to the crossbow of his own ship, still loaded, and took aim. The nearest dragon was distinct from the others, bright blue and of different proportions.

Hiccup looked down at the chief and saw him take aim, then looked up at the huge arrow's trajectory. He spotted Astrid, and called her name.

"Astrid!"

She looked up at Hiccup, and noticed the huge bow pointed at her. Her dragon made a sharp turn, and the massive bolt missed her.

The chief looked back at his last of the four armed ships. It fired its bolt ineffectively into the cloud of circling dragons, missing its target.

"Turn around!" The chief yelled, "Retreat!"

The dragons flew around the ships, but with no more threats on the water, let them be. Carmine dived lower and fired at some vikings trying to reload one of the crossbows.

Ceara pulled close to Toothless, and the riders looked down into the water, where the remaining ships were picking up those that had jumped into the water. "We did it." Yoseph stated.

"Will they make it through the winter without any food?" Hiccup asked.

"They should, but they'll be hungry. But maybe now they'll accept the food the other tribes have been offering them. Kleave's leading a trip to their island by dragon, to give them some of our extra meat and fish."

"Kleave has a dragon?" Hiccup asked. He had not seen any signs of one when he had visited the chief's house.

"No," Yoseph answered, "He was in the same generation as Rauge, born back before we had so many furies. He rides tandem with one of the other riders."

"I feel sorry for that dragon." Hiccup joked. Yoseph smiled, and began re-forming the other riders for the trip back.

* * *

Kleave's flight had arrived at the village, greeted mostly by the wives and children of the Jordanes tribe. He had given them the news of their defeat, and offered some of their surplus food. While the small remaining population of male vikings protested, they were overruled by the vast majority of the women. They had quite the opposite view, thanking him and his men extravagantly.

Kleave hoped that upon their return, the fighting men of the village wouldn't punish them for what he had done. He was just beginning to leave and join the rest of the riders, when one of the women pulled him aside.

He asked her, "What is it, ma'am? I've got to leave soon. I wouldn't want to anger your men by showing myself at their home when they return."

The woman replied, "Don't worry about them, I just wanted to thank you for bringing the food."

"Like I said, ma'am, we need trade to survive. It's in our best interests to keep as many vikings around as possible."

The woman lowered her voice when she next spoke to him: "If you really want to help, you'll get rid of _them_."

Kleave turned around. "The dragons? No, we can't do that. And I can assure you, no dragon of ours burned–"

"No." The woman shushed him. "The dragons are fine, but the fire was still no accident. It was _them_, the Demen. They came."

"No. . ." Kleave said.

"Yes." The woman answered back. "_They_ burned the fields. And if you want to make any sort of difference, you'll stop them from doing it again." With that, she turned around and quickly left the chieftain.

Kleave walked back to his dragon. He shook his head, and said quietly to himself, "The boy's not going to like this. . ."

* * *

The vikings in the grand hall of Soare parted, letting their chief pass through the throng that had gathered. He made his way to the back, where his dragon riders waited for him.

He spoke to Yoseph for a second, then, he addressed the crowd.

"I am proud to announce. . ." He said in a loud, booming voice, "That the mission – was a complete success!"

The vikings in the hall cheered, and held their fists in the air. Kleave waited until they had calmed down, then continued.

"Not only did we turn back the Jordanes, and give them food, but we did it without a single casualty!" The vikings roared again. "And, we have gained a new ally – the vikings of Berk!"

Stoick stepped forward, and waited. When the hall was once again quiet, he spoke: "When I came to your island, I was more than a little surprised to find a tribe that had grown up in harmony with dragons, even as we fought our war against them. But, after seeing with my own eyes, and listening to accounts of the battle your riders fought for us–" He turned to look at the riders behind him, looking at his son for a second, then turning back, "I'm sure I can speak for my village when I say that we will be happy to trade with you. And, of course, we will be happy to work with your dragon riders, whenever our assistance is required!"

Finally, the speeches were over, and the men reverted to the time-honored tradition practiced by all vikings – they celebrated their victory by getting as drunk as they could. Luckily, though they were in constant need of other products, the Soare vikings always kept a sufficient supply of beer for just such an occasion.

The party had been going on on for hours, when Kleave put a hand on Yoseph's shoulder. "Yoseph, could we talk for a minute?"

Yoseph was standing next to Hiccup, watching as Carmine and Astrid threw axes at a pair of target shields hung up on the wall. Luckily, most of the vikings still awake were sober enough to keep out of their way.

Hiccup, leaning on Toothless, stayed to watch the girls. After a few minutes, however, Toothless cocked his head to the side. He sniffed the air for a moment, then walked away. Hiccup, still watching the girls, stumbled as he was pulled along.

Toothless had been drawn to a large barrel that had been rolled in by Rauge. Hiccup's dragon began sniffing at the edges of the container, and Rauge stopped rolling it.

"Just the dragon I was looking for!" He exclaimed. "I just left the other furies their supper, and I didn't want Toothless to miss out." He removed the top of the barrel, and Toothless reached his head in. He pulled out one of the largest fish Hiccup had ever seen.

"Been saving that for a special occasion!" The dragon trainer said. "I thought your night fury might enjoy it."

Toothless enthusiastically began to dig in. While he did, Rauge spoke to Hiccup, "Lad, why don't you come with me. Kleave told me to come down here, and you might want to hear what he says." The viking seemed to have lost the happy mood that permeated the air.

They left Toothless to enjoy his bounty, and walked to the back of the hall. Rauge opened a door, and they found themselves standing around a round table with Yoseph and Kleave.

"Excellent, everyone's here." The chieftain said.

"What's all this about?" Yoseph asked.

Kleave said in a serious tone, "When we were delivering food to the Jordanes, one of their women told me something."

"Can't this wait 'till tomorrow?" Yoseph asked. "Usually you _make_ us wait a night before we talk about new missions."

"No, this can't wait. I need to know _now_ if I have your support, Yoseph." Kleave answered.

"You know you do." Yoseph said. "Have I ever let you down?"

"No. No you haven't." Kleave replied.

"So what do you want me to do?" Yoseph asked again.

Kleave paused before he said anything. Then he spoke, "The Jordanes told me that their fields weren't burned by accident." He said. "someone _lit _them on fire." He looked to Yoseph. "The Demen came, and raided the food supplies. They took what they could, and burned what was left. I intend to stop them."

Yoseph's features faltered. "If you want to send someone in, Carmine could do it. She's a good negotiator."

"No, Yoseph, _you're_ going in." Kleave said.

Yoseph frowned and looked away. "No." He said quietly.

"You just said I had your support. I want you to go in there, and look for a way to convince them to stop. Blend in, and find something to use against them."

"Please. . ." Yoseph said, desperately. "I won't go back."

"No one else can do it. It has to be you, lad. Will you do this?"

Yoseph put his hands on the table, and looked down. He stared for what seemed like and eternity, but finally said, "I'll think about it."

He stepped away from the table, and walked quickly to the door. Hiccup had never seen the teen viking so troubled. In fact, save for the ambush at the pass that morning, he had never seen Yoseph as anything but a care-free, spirited viking, even when they had captured and tied him up. It was strange to see him in such low spirits.

"What was that about?" He asked to the two adults, who were still staring at the door Yoseph had left through.

"The boy doesn't like to talk about it," Rauge said, "but he's not actually from Soare."

Hiccup looked at the faces of the two viking warriors – they looked completely serious. It seemed impossible to Hiccup; Yoseph seemed so at home at the island, not out of place in the least. Then again, he had seemed almost the same back at Berk, too.

"_What_?" He asked.

Kleave answered for him. "He's actually from Demean – the island where the Demen live. He ran away, and found his way to us. He found Ceara, and they've been inseparable ever since. I've never seen a dragon and rider so close to each other." He looked over at Hiccup. "Except, maybe, you and your night fury."

"Why did he run away?" Hiccup asked. He was surprised at this new side of Yoseph – Hiccup had though that all the boy's mysteries had been unraveled when he brought them to his island. Apparently, he was wrong.

"The Demen are one of the worst viking clans." Kleave went on. "They raid other viking villages, instead of growing their own food. They kill their own neighbors, steal what they can, and wait for them to recover so they can do it again. They've been getting more and more out of control every year." He continued, "Yoseph wanted no part in it. Just a few years ago, he left, and came here. Now he helps teach the dragon riders, and leads the missions. Every one, except for those that involve Demean."

Rauge suggested, "Why don't you go talk to him, Hiccup? He could use some company."

While Hiccup agreed, he wasn't sure he was the best choice. "I don't think–"

"Well, I do." Kleave interrupted. "He loves this place, and everyone here loves him back, but he needs a new face to talk to."

Hiccup bit his lip, but then nodded.

"Okay." He said.


	7. Chapter 7: Days Past

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 7

**Days Past**

* * *

Hiccup found Yoseph, once again, on the roof of the house he had slept inside of. He was reclining against the slope, stargazing.

"Why don't you go to your own house?" He asked.

"This _is_ my house." Yoseph replied, still looking at the stars.

"Oh." Hiccup though for a minute, and realized that it made sense. Yoseph had run away, so he wouldn't have had parents on the island. "Where did you sleep last night?"

"Up here. I like sleeping under the stars." He replied. Not all that surprising, really.

Hiccup tried to find a way up, but could not see any nearby ladders. He remembered how Yoseph had climbed up the columns in the meeting hall. He tried to put his hands and feet into the cracks between the logs of the house, but his metal prosthetic wouldn't keep a good grip, so he was stuck to using his hands and one good foot to climb.

After his first unsuccessful attempt, Yoseph said, "Go away."

Hiccup tried again, and Yoseph made no move to stop him. This time he climbed up two logs before he fell, landing on his butt. He tried again.

This time, he made it three logs up, and Yoseph slid down to the edge of the roof. He held down a hand to help Hiccup, and together they heaved the young viking over the lip. Yoseph then climbed back to his original spot on the roof, and lay down.

Hiccup, not knowing what to say, sat down next to him.

"They told you?" Yoseph asked. Hiccup nodded. "Yes."

"I hated that place." Yoseph began, "I spent thirteen years of my life learning how to kill a man in the most gruesome ways possible. Thirteen years of lessons about how to carry as mush loot as you can, but leave enough so that they can survive, then some back in the next few seasons and do it again."

Hiccup nodded. "I guess that would be pretty terrible."

Yoseph continued. "I was a nobody – I couldn't swing an axe right, I couldn't throw a spear right, all I learned how to do was avoid my classmate's weapons. Probably the one useful skill I took from that there."

Hiccup nodded. He could sympathize with Yoseph's past experience – it wasn't too dissimilar from his own, before he had found Toothless.

"Then, I went on my first raid." He went on. "And that's when I made up my mind to leave."

* * *

Even waiting in the boat, far back on the shore, the young boy could sense the destruction. He could hear the screams as women and children fled their homes, the metal-on-metal screech as some of the men tried to fight back. He could see the smoke, tainting the sky.

"My dad's gonna get more than yours!" One of the other boys in the boat with him said. Another rebuked, "Your dad's gonna bring back some lame wheat. _Mine's_ gonna bring back something gold and expensive.

The boy was silent. He hated this place, hated what his father did. Hated what everyone here did.

* * *

Yoseph narrated his story.

"I packed as much food as I could into a bag, the night before I left. I didn't know anything about surviving in the wild back then. I had no plan, I just wanted out. That night, I waited for my father to fall asleep.

"Now, back then, the Demen still weren't a very popular tribe. We had enemies, and the night I chose to run was one of the worst coincidences of my life.

"I had the bag over my shoulder, and I was waiting at my door for the time I thought my father would be asleep. I was almost ready to go, when the attack hit.

"There was a fireball outside our house. The other tribe had brought their catapults, and started with them. I still don't know which tribe attacked us that night.

"Anyway, my father woke straight up and ran out the door. When he was gone, I followed, and looked out the door after him.

"It was chaos. There was fire everywhere, and enemy vikings were charging down the hills from all sides. They must have landed on the beaches on the other side of the island. When they fired their catapults, they woke up the entire village, and our men were fighting back.

"I should have stayed in the house, and left running for another day. But this was years ago, and the most dangerous situation I had ever been in was sparring at the arena. I was scared.

"So, I ran. I went for the docks, and thought I could steal a boat and leave the island before they reached me. I was wrong.

"They had men hiding at the flanks of our village, and after the first charge, warriors started to appear everywhere. I couldn't find a street free of the fighting, so I just ran wherever I could. That was the first time I ever really had to dodge blows that were meant to kill me.

"I almost made it to the docks, and I thought I was home free. But one of the other vikings caught me. I thought I was dead for sure."

* * *

Yoseph was pinned to the ground, and though he struggled, there was no way he could escape the burly viking. The man pushed him down with one hand, and with the other he drew a knife.

Yoseph closed his eyes. He knew he was done for.

The man on top hesitated, looking at the boy beneath him. He lowered his knife, and cut the strap of the bag that was around the young viking's shoulder. He got up, and took the bag with him.

Yoseph opened his eyes – the man had spared him. Yoseph had always been taught not to spare anyone unless absolutely necessary – Was the fight going that bad for them, that they were letting his people live? Were there already too few to recover the village?

No, he could see many fights still raging in the streets. The battle was not being won or lost yet.

But filled with adrenaline, Yoseph only had time to think intermittently. In his first taste of life-or-death combat, most of his actions were just instinct.

He got up and kept moving, and found a shield and axe on the ground. He took them – without his pack, he could carry the extra weight.

When he reached the docks, he stopped and stared for a moment. One of the huge, burning catapult projectiles had slammed into the cliff above the huge wooden ramp, and was raining burning debris down on what was left of it.

Yoseph looked at the smoldering mass for what seemed like an eternity, though it was only for the space of a few seconds. He had to get down to the docks. This was the only way.

He dropped the axe – it was just dead weight, and he was unlikely to find anyone left on the ramp. He began walking down.

He reached the first obstacle about halfway through the first section. The impact of the fireball had ripped away most of the planking, save for a single lengthwise support beam hugging the cliff.

Yoseph walked forward. He pushed as far to the rock wall as he could, and began to sidestep down the logs, the shield above and in front of him, to block the torrent on sparks and debris falling before him.

He reached the part where the bridge narrowed to the single beam, and slowly advanced. Halfway to the opposite end, he almost tripped, but managed to regain his balance.

He made it. He hurried down, where the ramp curved back on itself, again under the grounded projectile. This time, the ramp was further out, and he would have to go directly under the falling torrent of hot, smoldering rocks and burning clumps of oil.

He looked forward, and took a deep breath. He ran, holding his shield up and angled to the side. He felt the impacts of the falling wreckage, but the wood of his shield held up.

He looked up at the smoldering catapult projectile again, and saw a small fireball falling towards him. He lifted the shield more to protect his head, and stopped the missile.

He finally made it to the other side, and continued down the ramp.

* * *

"I made it to the bottom, and found a small boat. I was never very good at sailing, and I knew that I couldn't pilot one of the larger ships."

"And then did you find your way here?" Hiccup asked.

"Nope." Yoseph replied. "I got in the boat and put up the sail. I didn't know what direction I was going in, but later, I guessed it was probably to the northwest.

* * *

Yoseph woke up in the boat the next day. He stood up and looked around, but found no sign of any other ships, or the harbor he had set out from.

He remembered the events of last night, but when the memories came rushing back, he showed no outward sign of it. He had wanted to get away, and he had. Now he just had to figure out what to do.

He looked for the closest island to him, and pulled on the rudder stick. The small ship turned, and slowly made its way there.

When he reached the island, he tried to beach the ship, but with little success. He managed to heave the anchor overboard, and decided that it would do.

As soon as the beach ended, the trees began. He walked up the short incline, and into the forest. He didn't know what he was looking for – he still hadn't made any sort of plan.

He started talking to himself. "Oh, let's just go see what's on the island. There are probably no snakes to bite you, or bears to maul you. Heck, if you're lucky, there might not even be a dragon to spit fire on you and roast your guts. Whoa!"

He tripped, and fell onto a toppled log. "Ug. . ."

He pulled himself up, and jumped off on the other side. He continued his slow trek through the woods.

In a different part of the forest, a shape crouched to the bottom of a pond. It looked above itself, searching for movement. The only visible parts were its bright eyes, the rest of its body camouflaged to the surroundings.

It leapt, and its head exploded out of the water. It hauled its body out onto the beach, where it swallowed the fish it had caught.

It looked back into the water, but before it jumped in, it cocked its head to the side. It heard an unusual sound – then, it turned around, and walked into the forest.

"Let's just leave home, with no supplies, and live by ourselves out in the wilderness. . ." Yoseph continued on.

He heard a noise behind him, and jumped. He looked towards the source of the sound, and saw a sapling shaking.

He looked around at the nearby trees. He could see nothing out of place. He let out a heavy breath. He was just nervous. There was nothing to be worried about.

But this wouldn't stop the dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach. No matter how positive his thoughts were, his gut refused to unclench, and Yoseph remained on alert.

Despite his lookout, two neon blue eyes tracked him through the forest. Eventually, he lost some of his edge, as the small amount of adrenaline seeped out of his system.

He tried to rally his thoughts, and form a strategy. However, he couldn't get past the fact that he had no supplies, no shelter, and no experience in the wild. He decided to return to the ship, and see if he could salvage anything from it.

He turned around, and began walking in the direction that he had come from. The eyes froze, unlinking, still unseen. He kept walking, closer and closer to the dragon hiding in the bushes.

Did he got around _this_ tree, or was it the one over there? Maybe –

Suddenly, he tripped, as the surface he had stepped on pulled itself away.

"Ah!" He screamed, as he fell face-first to the ground. "Oof!"

He heard a snarl behind him, and turned around to see a dragon growling at him. He had stepped on its tailfin, and now that its cover was blown, it carefully sized up its prey. It moved in a slow circle, stepping closer, but ready to jump away at any second.

Yoseph had no weapon, and his mind raced as the dragon stalked toward him.

He slowly reached back with his hand, searching for anything he could use. He found a tree, and pushed on it to help himself up.

He didn't dare move as the dragon approached him, and he averted his eyes when it was almost to him, thinking it would pounce.

The dragon stopped, and looked the small boy up and down. He was obviously scared, and alone. He had a small cut on his arm from when he had fallen.

Yoseph waited, and waited. He heard the creature start moving again, and closed his eyes tighter.

He heard the rustling sound of bushes being pushed aside, and finally opened his eyes. The dragon was gone.

He looked down. There was half a dead fish, covered in saliva, sitting at his feet.

* * *

"After that, I saw her more often. She took me in. It wasn't long before she really was my dragon, and eventually, it was her that led me here." Yoseph gestured to the village around him.

"Wow." Hiccup said.

Yoseph looked back up to the sky, and began thinking again. The he said, "I have to go talk to Kleave."

He jumped off the roof, and left Hiccup. The young Berk viking pondered the story he had been told – unlike Hiccup, who had taken in the injured Toothless and brought him to the village, Ceara and Yoseph had had the opposite roles. He thought that there must be more to the story – but he would leave Yoseph alone for now. At this moment, his first priority was getting off this roof without breaking his good leg.


	8. Chapter 8: Return

I've been writing this in the third person, but I've been trying to do it, more or less, from Hiccup's perspective. Now, because Yoseph is going to be alone in the middle of the action, I'll start working with him – and hopefully, free to play around with my own character, I can get into more detail with his personality.

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 8

**Return**

* * *

The next day, dragon training was canceled so Rauge could work with Yoseph. Kleave, Stoick, and the children from Berk gathered around the map in Soare's meeting hall.

Kleave had also called Carmine in with them. She stood at ridged attention, showing nothing on her face in front of her chief. Her warrior personality reminded Hiccup of Astrid.

Kleave told everyone the basics of the story Hiccup had heard last night – how Yoseph had actually grown up on Demean, but had run away and found Soare. Now, he had agreed to go back and try to find a way to make the Demen become less aggressive – and to do this, he would pretend to be one of them.

"I want a rider to sneak in and contact him once every few days." Kleave looked at the assembled children. "That's where you all come in – with Stoick's permission, of course."

Stoick nodded. "I don't see why not. This seems far less dangerous than the last 'mission' of yours."

"Excellent," Kleave said, "I'm glad I can count on you all."

Then, the door to the small room Hiccup had been in the night before opened, and Yoseph walked out. His clothes were torn, the skin on his wrists seemed like it had been rubbed off, and there was a large bruise over his left eye.

Their story was that during the raid Yoseph had escaped in several years ago, he had been captured by the attacking tribe and held hostage, and had only recently escaped. He certainly looked the part.

"Sorry we couldn't have you there for the eye, Carmine." Yoseph said, "I know you would have loved to give it to me yourself."

Astrid stifled a laugh. Carmine glared at her, still not giving up her warrior persona.

Hiccup was glad that Yoseph had regained his easygoing manner after last night. He had that same, life-is-a-game smile that he had had on his face for the first few days Hiccup had known him.

"There's an island nearby where you can camp out on for a night or so every time you go to meet Yoseph." Kleave said. "He'll lead you all there, so you can find it when you need to."

Yoseph smiled wider, looking at the map on the table. "We're going to where the furies are."

* * *

"I haven't been back in ages." Yoseph said. "We've been so busy lately, no one's had time to come here."

They were approaching the island were Yoseph said that the furies nested on. They had flown for a day to the southeast, and the chunk of land looked like most of the others Hiccup had spotted today. There were no dragons circling it, nor any furies down by the sea fishing. They followed Ceara to a clearing in the woods, where they touched down.

Snotlout looked around. "Where are all the dragons?" He asked.

"They'll be here." Yoseph said. He began taking the saddle of Ceara, and unpacking the supplies they had brought.

Hiccup observed the dense vegetation around them. He asked, "How come you haven't built any houses? It seems like there's enough lumber here."

"Oh, we've tried." Yoseph said. "Look over there."

The group looked to where he was pointing, a spot of ground that had been scorched black. Yoseph explained, "The furies are kind enough to us on Soare, but we don't think they'd like us to live on their island. We can set up some tents for a few days, and they'll leave them alone. Just remember, this is _their_ land."

Hiccup looked at Astrid, who gave him a shrug. They began to unpack the supplies.

Hiccup was removing some tent poles from Toothless' back, when he noticed his dragon was twitching. The night fury's head was jerking from side to side, peering through the woods in front of them.

Toothless roared into the forest. I wasn't a threatening sound, and the other dragons all lifted their heads in his direction. Hiccup guessed that he was calling to other dragons, still hidden in the forest.

His theory was proven correct when four dragons walked out of the brush. They slowly came into the open clearing, and approached Toothless. Hiccup moved away, staring at the four furies – two red and two blue. They met Toothless in a line, and stopped. They sniffed the black dragon, taking in its scent. Toothless did the same.

Then, the tension was broken, and one of the dragons roared back at Toothless, the same deep, unthreatening sound. Two of them began to circle Toothless, observing their new obsidian companion. The other two began walking through the camp, looking over the supplies the children had brought. One of the reds began speaking with Carmine's fury, exchanging low growls. The other, apparently satisfied with the riders' camp, curled up at the edge of the clearing to watch them.

"That's strange." Yoseph said. "There's usually more – they almost never go hunting all at the same time."

Hiccup was amazed that there were _this_ many furies in one place – they must have been a force to be reckoned with, if they could all hunt well enough to not raid the local villages for food. He wondered if Toothless had originally come from this island.

"Well, we'd better keep unpacking." Carmine said, back to business. The children finished setting up camp.

* * *

The next day, Yoseph was very worried about the furies. Two had come in the night, in addition to the ones that had already joined them.

"There's only six. . . That can't be right." He said.

Along with the seventeen back at Soare, that would make twenty-three night furies. If Yoseph was right, there should have been nearly as many here as there were in the old volcano that housed the dragons that used to terrorize Berk. But only twenty-three? Something was wrong.

"Why would they leave?" Hiccup asked.

"Maybe they ran out of food." Fishlegs suggested.

"No, there are plenty of islands they could fly to to hunt. And there still seem to be plenty of fish, and the furies love those." Yoseph replied.

"Maybe they all just chose to leave?" Carmine said, "Or they're migrating south for a few years."

"Then why have so many been coming with us recently?" Yoseph asked. "Could that be connected?"

They waited for a moment, and looked at the furies as they played. The colored ones from the island seemed fascinated with Toothless' red tailfin, and he was pulling it away as they tried to scratch and bite it.

"Well," Carmine said, "we still have to get Yoseph to Demean. We can worry about the furies later."

* * *

They had decided that Yoseph would make a raft out of whatever he could, and paddle himself to Demean under the watchful eyes of the dragons. He started cutting down trees – he only used a single hatchet, which he would claim to have stolen, to make the story more believable. He would spend the day making the craft, then set off at night, and start his way towards the island. Hopefully, he said, a fishing boat would see him and pick him up before he got all the way there.

The children passed the time in different ways. Fishlegs began cutting even squares into a flat piece of wood, for a board to play a game called 'checkers' on. Hiccup had no idea where he had learned about the game, but he didn't bother to ask.

The twins, tasked with gathering firewood on different sides of the island, were arguing about who was bringing back the best logs. Snotlout had claimed that he could build a house before he left the island, and was chopping down trees to make the square foundation. Yoseph had told Hiccup, "As soon as everyone leaves the island, the furies will tear it down." In fact, one of them was stealing one of his logs whenever Snotlout went to get new ones. There was quite a pile of firewood being stacked up that both twins were trying to take credit for.

Hiccup decided that he and Toothless would go for a flight. Yoseph suggested a few spots where the stone pillars made interesting formations, then went back to work on his raft.

Astrid looked at her nadder, still sound asleep. She looked over the rest of the camp, and her eyes rested on Carmine. She had a knife, and was cutting down a long, straight piece of wood.

She walked over, and asked, "What are you doing?"

Carmine looked up. "Making a bow. I'm the best in the village." She proclaimed, and went back to carving.

Astrid, not about to let the conversation rest, said, "Bows are lame, axes are better."

Carmine looked up. "Is that a challenge?"

* * *

They set up two targets on one side of the clearing. Astrid wielded three axes she had brought, and Carmine had three arrows in her quiver. The arrows, longer than those of the crossbows, wouldn't fit in a satchel bag.

Everyone was lined up behind the girls; Yoseph had taken a break from his raft, and Hiccup had returned with Toothless. Even the dragons watched the display in interest. Snotlout stood to the side, an arm held up.

Carmine nocked an arrow in her recurve bow, but kept it slack, and pointed at the ground. Astrid held her first axe to her side. Snotlout lowered his arm and yelled, "Go!"

Both girls let fly their first projectiles. Carmine lifted and pulled back her bow in one smooth motion, firing, and reaching back for her second arrow. Astrid lifted the axe above her head and threw it, spinning, over the camp to impale itself in the wooded stump that was her target.

Carmine nocked and fired her second arrow, reaching back in exactly the same movement as she had last time. Astrid picked up her second axe, and threw it, reaching for the final one. Both girls fired their last weapon in the same tenth of a second, and the sounds they made came back at exactly the same time – the loud _thump_ of Astrid's axe, and the quieter sound of Carmine's arrow.

The procession made its way down the makeshift range, and studied the targets. Astrid's axes were almost perfectly side-by-side, and Carmine's arrows were in a tight triangle near the center.

"So who won?" Snotlout asked.

"I did." Both girls said at the same time.

"You can't use a shield when there's and axe in it." Astrid announced to Carmine.

"But you can't _block_ an arrow with a shield. It goes right in a leg or an arm, and then there's no point in even _having_ a shield anymore." The other girl rebuked.

They glared at each other for a minute, when Yoseph interrupted, "I finished the raft. Astrid, Hiccup, why don't you come help me cast off.

Carmine smiled slyly at Astrid, before she turned her back and left.

* * *

Yoseph sat, bored, on the raft. He had gotten used to the swaying motion, and the salt water that now soaked his clothes, but there was really nothing to _do_ on the raft. Maybe he should have just flown there and said he had floated in. But that wouldn't have worked – he could never have replicated the salt caked in his clothes for hours, or the sunburn he was beginning to feel on the back of his neck. It was like the black eye and the rope burns Rauge had given him; a necessary, if unpleasant, part of buying his old village's trust back.

He reached down to his pocket, where he felt the familiar outline of the dragon scale he always kept on his person. It was one of Ceara's, from back when she had helped him survive in the wilderness. Furies, like most dragons, didn't shed their scales – they were imbedded into their skin. If they did come off, however, they would grow back, like a regular scrape or cut. When one of Ceara's had fallen off, he had kept it, as a sort of good luck charm. He had a feeling he would need it on Demean.

The raft he had built was a rather flimsy thing, just a line of sticks and a crossbar at either end, tied together with a few vines. He couldn't even sit on it; he had to lay with the lower part of his legs in the water. Hiccup had taken one look at it and suggested a dozen different designs, but Yoseph had replied with, "I supposedly built this raft on an enemy island, trying to get away as fast as I could. As long as it floats, it works." He was starting to regret that comment.

He had paddled for the first hour or so, but he doubted it had propelled him very far. The current seemed to be taking him to Demean, so he would let it carry him. He looked up to the dragon watching from the sky. It looked like Carmine's fury – Rubian, he remembered.

On Soare, Carmine had been one of the most hostile towards him – and, oddly, one of the most accepting. The hostile part was probably just from their matches at the arena. He could easily dodge her blows, a skill he had improved upon since he arrived at Soare, but she would always get him when _he_ tried to make a strike. So, he had taken to running from her and dodging until she tired out, and then try to move in for a hit. The matches were long, strenuous, and particularly difficult with Carmine. Usually they both left without any solid hits.

Maybe in his time spying on the Demen, he would learn how to handle a weapon better. That is, if they had improved upon their "Here's-the-weapon-now-go-hit-someone-with-it" teaching mentality. Fat chance.

He had been a screw-up in his own village, but unlike Hiccup, his _father_ wasn't the chieftain. He wished he could say that they were both kindred spirits, but it must have been twice as hard on Hiccup as it had been on Yoseph. Yet, it had been him that ran away. Did that make him a coward?

No, it may not have been as bad for Yoseph where social status was concerned, but that hadn't been the biggest reason he had run away. It had been the raids – not the incoming ones, he was as much a viking as any, and was willing to fight to protect his home – it was the raids _his_ people commenced on the other tribes, Where food and belongings were carted away, anything else destroyed so that they were left with only the bare minimum to survive on. Even if it was supposedly the viking way of life, there were tribes that survived without it, like Soare and Berk. But the Demen – they wouldn't have any of that.

He couldn't regret the decisions that brought him to this moment; the one made days ago, or the one made years ago. And he couldn't deny that his luck had been good.

But he was going to start regretting the more recent decision, if those Demen boats didn't come to pick him up soon.

Unseen to Yoseph, a dark blue dragon lowered its head into the water, and began swimming to the next pillar where it could avoid his view.


	9. Chapter 9: Welcome Home

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 9

**Welcome Home**

* * *

"Why do we even bother doin' this?" One of the vikings in the fishing boat asked. "After the last raid, we've got more than enough food to feed the village."

"What the chief says goes." Another man retorted, "Winter's just around the corner, and if he wants to use the months we have to gather food, then I agree with him."

Yoseph looked over at the ship he had been paddling towards, annoyed by the fact that they hadn't noticed him yet. He had been drifting nearby them for almost a minute now, but the man who was supposed to be on watch was busy talking to his friends in the boat. He began yelling, trying to get their attention.

"Humph." The first man said to himself. "Winter's always 'just around the corner.' That's the first thing that's always said as soon as the last one blows over."

"Hey!" Yoseph screamed.

"And _I _always get stuck on the ship with mister–"

"Hey!"

What was that annoying echo?

"Thor's hammer, isn't that a boy?" Another viking exclaimed, breaking his line of thought.

He looked over to the right side of the ship, and realized that, in fact, there_ was_ a boy floating on the water. He was yelling to them, but could only be heard now that the men were listening.

They turned the boat towards him, and eventually, picked him up in the fishing net. The lead viking immediately moved forward, and inspected the boy and his raft; a flimsy little thing that hardly seemed seaworthy.

"Who are you?" The captain asked, "And what are you doing here?"

"My name is Yoseph." The boy replied. "I was taken from Demean years ago."

The boy certainly looked the part – his clothes seemed to have endured more hardship than just the high seas, and there was a shiner, easily a few days old, over his left eye. The viking also noticed some pink skin over both wrists, the telltale sign of manacles. He was proud of his thorough observation, and mentally reserved himself a few extra cups of mead for tonight.

"Yoseph? Wasn't that Obur's boy?"

* * *

Carmine watched the episode from above. This was the part where Yoseph was really needed – the beginning. No one else could get so close without ringing alarm bells in the Demen's head. He could gain their trust from this point, and eventually, discover a weakness. Carmine still didn't know what Kleave expected them to find.

Stupid Yoseph, running from the Demen all those years ago. He always got to do all the delicate missions, despite – or in this case _because_ of – his youth on Demean. _She_ was supposed to do the next solo mission, Kleave had promised her himself. She could understand why he had broken his promise for this mission, and that Yoseph had no say in the matter, but that didn't make her any less mad at either of them. Stupid Yoseph.

She continued glaring at the boat, her dragon circling high above.

* * *

"And, in thanks to the brave sailors who brought this boy home, we shall have a feast tonight!" The Demen's chief shouted. The vikings cheered, and began to eat, drink, and partake in vikingly conversation

"Son, we're glad to have you have you back." The chief said to Yoseph, putting his hands on the boy's shoulders. Then, the man left, to join his tribe in consuming as many of their recently stolen resources as he could without vomiting.

Yoseph slowly walked over to his father. He hadn't seen him in years, since he had left – and even then, his father hadn't been all too proud of him. He wished his mother was here – but that was a story in itself, one that didn't need repeating right now.

Yoseph reached the figure standing out of the way, near the back of the meeting hall. "I . . ." The man stammered, "I'm glad you're back, Yoseph. I missed you." He said, none too convincingly. "You should . . . Get some rest. It's late. You can go to training tomorrow, unless you don't–"

"No, dad, it's fine. I can go tomorrow." Yoseph replied.

"Excellent." His father said. "Well. . . Goodnight."

Yoseph walked away. They had never been that close anyway.

* * *

The next day, Yoseph woke up early and ate his breakfast, avoiding his father. He was out the door before the (undoubtedly hungover) man was even up.

He began walking to the arena he had trained in three – almost four – years ago. Though he had few fond memories of the place, he would have to go there eventually, like all the Demen children. Somehow he didn't think his experience with deadly, flying, fire-breathing creatures would make it go any easier. Might as well get the first day over with.

While he was walking, he looked up to the sky, almost painfully empty. Even on the few days since he had first flown on a dragon that Ceara wasn't there, there had always been the comfort of the other dragons in the great blue expanse. Now, it was just a huge, blank canvas.

He didn't notice a girl step out of a side street in his way, and ran into her. She dropped a pot she was carrying, and a large chunk broke out of the top.

"Sorry. . ." Yoseph said, and quickly bent down, putting the fractured pieces into the largely intact portion of the jar.

"It's – it's fine. It was cracked anyway." He heard her say.

He stood up, and handed the pot back to her. He looked at her face, and tried to remember her name.

He recognized the girl. What was her name . . . "Ana. Sorry Ana"

"Don't worry." She said, looking down at the remnants of the pottery.

_Nice move. I really don't need this right now. . ._ Yoseph opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't think of anything to say. He closed his mouth, and quickly walked away.

"Wait. . . Yoseph–?" The girl looked up, but he had already left. She looked over her shoulder, and saw that he was already far down the street.

The arena at Demean was similar to the one at Soare. Not needing to enclose dragons like the one at Berk, the roof was totally open, the bleachers beginning after a high wall. The sides were decorated with weapons and shields.

A burly viking stood at the far end of the arena. The Demen didn't have a specified training instructor; instead, men were rotated through every day. In Yoseph's experience, they wouldn't do much except give you the weapon, tell you how to use it, and make sure no one got killed. Wounded was fine.

Yoseph waited for a few minutes for the other children to show up. They eventually came, in small groups, until the last ones arrived.

"Well, well, well. Look what the fish dragged in." One of the boys said.

Yoseph turned, and instantly recognized the voice. "Hello, Cass."

The Demean boy walked forward. "How's it goin', buddy!" Cass punched Yoseph in the shoulder, harder than was necessary, and Yoseph staggered back. "We've missed you all these years. Don't worry, we'll get you all caught up in no time."

Yoseph didn't respond. He could have done any number of things after, or before, he had been hit, but he ignored the urge to fight back. In his experience, if Cass didn't hit you the first time, he would keep trying until he did, and then he would do it twice as hard. Better to just let him do what he wanted and think that he'd won.

The viking in charge finally spoke up, and pointed to a rack of weapons. "Everyone! Go get a spear and a shield, and start sparring. Move it!"

So, the good old teaching mentality hadn't changed. Oh joy.

Cass, unsurprisingly, partnered up with him. He had always been the torturer of the boy, since he had learned that he was better with a weapon than Yoseph. Four years, and he hadn't forgotten.

Cass poked and prodded with the spear, incredibly narrow-minded with its usefulness. Even Astrid, without being prompted, had swung the shaft when opportunity presented itself. The Demen would only thrust, and the instructor wasn't all that interested with his teenage charges, even if he knew better.

Cass spoke as he attacked, and Yoseph blocked, not trying to get an attack of his own in. "How was it, being captured by another tribe? I'll bet you're escape was daring. Did the guard fall asleep on you?"

Well, Yoseph's most recent guard _had_ fallen asleep. But he wasn't about to mention that.

He moved his shield at a fraction of the speed he could have, not wanting to show his skills to Cass. He would react slowly when he saw him preparing to thrust low or to the side, and got hit many times. When he saw that he was about to be struck, he tried to prepare himself for the pain from the hard impacts of the blunt wood.

_weight to the right, arm bent slightly_. Yoseph stepped to the left and angled the shield for a clean deflection, succeeding.

"What were you doing in all that time there?" Cass went on. "Were you in charge of emptying the toilets? Maybe you knocked the guard out with your brush."

"Shut up, Cass." Yoseph finally said.

"Oo, you did clean the toilets! Don't worry, you can continue your trade here. Maybe even take on an apprentice." The other boy taunted.

While fighting, Yoseph had taken notice of some of the other boys breaking out of their pairs to attack other groups. The viking in charge didn't seem to care, and did nothing about it.

He thought he could hear the footsteps of someone behind him, and quickly turned his head around for a glance back. His suspicions were correct; there was a boy behind him, trying to hit him in the back with his spear.

Yoseph dipped to the right, and brought his shield up to whack the boy in the face. He stepped back and, behind him, swung his own spear and swept the boy off his feet.

"Maybe I will." Yoseph replied to Cass. "Are you offering your services?"

It had been painfully easy, one of the few tricks he had mastered with the spear, even with his lack of skill. He wondered at how the Demean vikings could be so aggressive, and yet have children so _bad_ at combat. Well, maybe not bad – _disorganized_ was the word. Even the simple combination he had just used – step, shield, sweep – seemed beyond these trainees.

They made up for this with the ferocity of their attacks. The dragon rider never got a chance to use another combination; he was too busy blocking Cass' more forceful strikes.

* * *

The viking who had been put in charge of training was obviously eager to end his boring day watching the children, and called practice out early. While the other children left immediately, Yoseph decided to stay behind for a little while.

The viking looked at him as if he was crazy, but didn't have the interest to stop him. He left as well.

When he was alone, Yoseph inspected the arena. It couldn't hurt to know as much as he could about the place he would be tortured in for the next few months.

The walls were high and made of stone, impossible to climb. However, most of the weapons were in reach, and he grabbed an axe off the wall. He gave it a practice swing. The axe wasn't his favorite weapon, but he could tell this one was not a fake, or an old, damaged one. He put it back, and grabbed a shield. It was solid as well. It would be nice to know he could grab these weapons off the walls and actually _use_ them it he needed to.

He looked around the dirt floor of the space. It was totally flat, so no one would have to worry about tripping. The only way out was by one of the two gates on either side, both of them kept open.

He left the arena, and thought about his mission. He had absolutely no idea where to start, or where to look for a weakness in the tribe.

As he was walking, he noticed a large crowd in the center of the street. He walked up to it, and through gaps in the throng, he could see Cass wrestling with another boy his age.

From beside him, he heard, "Yoseph!"

He turned to the direction of the noise, and saw Ana standing next to him.

"Ana! I. . . Sorry about the pot." He said. She was pretty – prettier than the last time he saw her. Or maybe just prettier than he remembered.

"It's fine." She said. "It was broken anyway."

_Just shut up, you're stammering like an idiot. No, speak, you have to speak._

"What's Cass doing?" Yoseph asked.

"Fighting over some stupid thing." Ana answered. "He's a bully. I wish someone would teach him a lesson."

"I remember." Yoseph replied. "Cass hasn't changed."

Ana looked at him, and said, "Where have you been all these years? What happened? They say you where captured one night when we were attacked. . ."

"Yup." Yoseph answered. "I just got away. They threw a party for the sailors who found me."

She scrutinized his face. "How did you get that black eye?"

Yoseph's hand went up to the bruise Rauge had given him. "Escaping," he said.

"I know, but _how_ did you get it?" Ana replied.

"Uh–" Yoseph though for a moment. He had _had_ a detailed story, but the Demen had remembered him, and had not investigated closely. He struggled to remember.

"I. . . I fell. It hit a rock." Not what he had planned in his original story, but it would do.

"Hm." She said, and turned back to the fight. Cass was trying to get the crowd to cheer him on, and unfortunately, some people were playing along with him.

Yoseph took the opportunity to slip away from the uncomfortable situation.

Ana turned back to where he had been standing. "How exactly did you–"

She stopped when she realized that he had left her. Why was he always leaving?

* * *

**Author's Note:**

like Yoseph said, his mother is a story in and of itself. I'm not going to go into that for a while, but rest assured, you will eventually hear about her again.


	10. Chapter 10: Setbacks

Sorry about the delay, but it's hard to write while you're drugged up on novicain and god-knows-what-else the oral surgeons use. Well, good news is that I'm back, minus four wisdom teeth. I'm not particularly proud of this entry – the action is still a couple of chapters away.

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 10

**Setbacks**

* * *

The boat held only two vikings, both working to pull in their net.

When the bounty of fish landed on the deck, one of them said, "Well, that looks like the last haul. Plenty to go around."

He took his place at the helm, while the other viking went to the bow to keep watch.

With nothing in their way an obvious hazard, the man looked boredly down into the water at the front of the boat. The last haul of the season, finally able to go home for a nice drink. . .

He jumped when a spurt of water erupted in front of his face. He landed on the low floor of the deck, and gave a small shout. He quickly crawled back to the front of the boat.

He looked over the edge, but saw nothing. Wait – there was a swirling pattern. . . Could that be some sort of animal?

"Hey Briggs, come over here!" He shouted to the other end of the ship.

The man at the helm walked forward through the catch of still-flopping fish, and stood at his side. "What is it?" He asked.

"Look down there," The other viking replied, "what is that?"

As the two looked over the bow of the boat, a dark blue dragon slipped over the side behind them.

"I don't see anything." Briggs said. "Are you imagining things?"

The fury looked at the men, and then began helping itself to the fish on the deck.

"No, I swear! There's something there!"

Ceara swallowed a few, and then gathered a respectable mouthful in her jaws. She walked over to the side of the deck.

"Look, there's something!" One of the vikings said, pointing to a shape in the water.

"I don't see it." The other man replied.

Ceara slipped over the edge, into the dark water, disappearing into the gloom of the sea.

"I don't have time for this." The viking known as Briggs finally said. As he stood up and turned around, he noticed the decreased number of fish.

"Thor's hammer! Where did all the fish go?"

* * *

Hiccup looked down, his mind working harder than it ever had. From the opposite end of the stump, Fishlegs mirrored his thoughtfulness.

Hiccup slowly reached down, and grabbed one of his square pieces, moving it across the board. He held it there for a moment, looking around the piece to ensure its safe position, and let go.

Fishlegs grabbed one of his own pieces, a circular one, and moved it over one of Hiccup's pieces. He took that piece off the board.

Carmine walked up to the boys, interrupting their game. "Have either of you seen Ceara?"

"Nope." Fishlegs said, still looking at the board.

"Nu-uh" Hiccup added.

"Ug!" Carmine sighed. "Stupid dragon!"

Meanwhile, Snotlout fumbled with the bow Carmine had made last night. He clumsily nocked the arrow, and pulled back the string. He focused on the tip of the arrow, then at the target he had set up in the center of the camp.

He let go of the string, and the arrow flew forward, flying far over the target. It impaled itself in a tree just in front of an irritated Carmine

The shaft quivered in front of her nose, and she turned to see Snotlout smiling sheepishly. She growled menacingly, and began walking towards him.

* * *

Yoseph had the day off of training, and was walking towards the forest to meet with one of the other riders, who had snuck in during the night. It would take some time to hike to the area, as it was on the opposite side of the island from the village.

Ana had been carrying water to her house in a new clay pot. As she set the container down in front of her house, she noticed him walking to the edge of town.

He heard her call, "Yoseph!" And turned around. She ran up to him.

"Ana. . . Uh. . . Hi." Yoseph said.

"Hi, Yoseph. Where are you going?" She asked.

"Uh. . ." He hadn't thought of a cover story – stupid. He looked around, searching for an answer. He noticed an axe leaning against a nearby house. "The. . . The blacksmith. I'm going to the blacksmith."

"I'll come with you." She replied.

"You – no. You don't have to do that." Yoseph said.

"Yes I do. The blacksmith is _that _way." She said, pointing back inside the village.

Yoseph opened his mouth, but couldn't think of anything. "Alright." He said, "Go ahead." Maybe if she went first, he could make it to the trees.

She raised an eyebrow, and kept pointing. Yoseph sighed, and began walking.

Ana stayed slightly behind him, preventing him from running. Wait – why would that stop him? He could easily outrun her. It just felt. . . _Uncomfortable_. He would have to wait until her back was turned to run. Stupid decency.

"So," Ana began, "how exactly did you escape?"

Yoseph stammered a bit before answering. After the Demen had failed to question him, he had almost forgotten his original cover story. "I found a sharp rock when I was working in the fields, and hid it in my pocket. They didn't find it, and that night, I cut myself out." He said. "Then, I escaped to the woods, and built a raft. I drifted until I got here." He gestured to the town around him.

"And that's when you fell, and got the bruise." She replied.

"Yes." Yoseph answered.

She moved forward slightly, and inspected Yoseph's face. "It's starting to go away. You should be okay in a few days."

Yoseph reached up and touched the tender flesh. "Yeah."

"So what did you do, all these years? What did they put you to work on, in the winter months?"

Pretty, annoying, inquisitive girl. She had already asked more questions about his supposed captivity than his own father. "I. . ."

Thankfully, nearby, a woman dropped a cluster of pots she was holding. Ana looked away and, seizing the opportunity, Yoseph darted between two nearby houses. He turned the corner, and looked down the street. He ran up to a barrel, and climbed from the top of it to the roof of one of the houses.

Ana turned back around, and ran through the ally after him. She looked up and down the street, then up at the rooftop Yoseph was hiding on. He climbed over the crest to the other side just before she swept her eyes over the building.

Ana growled loudly, and stalked back down the street. This was the third time he had run from her, the stupid, no-good boy. What was wrong with her? Most of the other boys in the village had _tried_ to get her attention at one time or another. He had never been this strange before he left. . .

Yoseph breathed a sigh of relief, and cautiously made his way through the village. Before he could leave the shadows of the houses, he spotted Ana sitting on the sheep corral fence, watching the woods he had been trying to get to earlier today.

He would have to take the long way around.

* * *

Carmine waited for Yoseph at the rendezvous point until it was almost sundown, when he finally showed up.

"Where have you been?" She asked, "Did you forget we were meeting today?"

"Sorry." Yoseph said, breathing heavily. "It was. . . Complicated. I got here as fast as I could."

"So, how's the mission going? Find any great weaknesses yet?" She asked.

"No," Yoseph replied, "They've accepted me in the village, some more than others." He said, thinking of Cass. "There's still nowhere I can think of to _look_. I can't find a reason they've been attacking the other villages so much recently, and I can't find any way to stop it."

"So, we've got nothing." Carmine said.

"Pretty much." Yoseph replied.

"Why don't you check their food stores, see how much they have." She suggested. "I'll send Fishlegs in a couple of days."

"When you go back, be sure to tell Kleave about the furies on the island." Yoseph said.

Carmine waved her hand at him. "Don't worry."

Yoseph sighed. He would have to go back the long way again, in case Ana was still looking for him. He would have to hurry if he was going to avoid missing dinner.

* * *

"Yah!" Astrid yelled, as she threw her axe from dragon back.

They had found a clearing, and set up three targets on the ground. As Astrid's nadder dived over the area, she threw her axes, impaling them deep with the force of her throws and her forward momentum.

Hiccup waited from the ground (far, far away) for her to run out of weapons. When he had counted all of her axes on the ground (twice, just to be sure), he ventured out of the trees.

"Looks good!" He yelled.

Astrid landed nearby and alighted from her nadder, inspecting her handiwork. Two of the axes had landed on either of the side targets, and one in the center one. They were all clustered near the middle of their respective bulls-eyes.

"Let's see Carmine's arrows beat that!" She exclaimed.

As if in response, a fury roared nearby.

"Sounds like she's back." Hiccup said.

Sure enough, when they returned, Carmine's fury, Rubian, lifted her head in acknowledgement as they entered camp. Carmine was inspecting her bag of bows and arrows, a habit she had been keeping more often since the incident with Snotlout. For his part, he stayed well enough away, probably still bleeding from said incident.

Astrid asked the first question, "Anything?"

Carmine shook her head, and looked up at the duo. "No, nothing yet, but he has been accepted back into the tribe. I want to send someone back to Soare to report on the mission."

"Who?" Astrid asked.

"Whoever is being the least useful."

Hiccup looked around the camp. Fishlegs was sticking his tongue out in concentration as he painted his chessboard; Snotlout was trying to rebuild his hut, while the red fury played tug-of-war with him over one of the logs (the dragon had become much more openly opposed to him after the first few days), and Ruffnut and Tuffnut were locked in an arm wrestle that had gone nowhere in the last ten minutes. It would be a tough call.

* * *

Yoseph had been in many life-threatening situations in the past few years

He had spied on villages, he had fought enemy warships from dragon back, he had scaled cliffs and free-fallen from well above the highest mountain peaks.

Now, all his skills were being given a run for their money by a fifteen-year-old girl.

He hadn't felt so insecure in years – odd, because this was the first time in years that he had been in the village of his birth. He couldn't put his finger on why he had to avoid her, but he couldn't think of anything good that could possibly come from a chat with her. So, he kept on avoiding her.

He chalked it up to nervousness. At least it took his mind off the paradox of finding a weakness to exploit in his tribe.

He took different routes to training every day, checked his corners whenever he moved from street to street, and made a careful survey of the perimeter of the house before he walked out the door.

His father was unaware of all this – he didn't have a clue what to do with his long-lost child, so he resolved to do absolutely nothing at all. It worked out well for both of them.

His role as the 'best' dragon rider of Soare had been given to him for his ability to adapt, and come up with creative solutions to problems; however, Ana was quickly running him out of ideas.

But such is the way of the world.

Ana continued to be a pestilence, bent on finding Yoseph and learning about his time in captivity. All she wanted was to hear about his time being held prisoner – once, she had considered that perhaps Yoseph just didn't want to talk about it, but decided to keep pursuing him. If he wanted her to stop, he would have to _tell_ her that himself.

Over the years, Yoseph had the acquired skill of reading body language, to tell where an opponent would strike next. It was his best defense in combat. But even he did not anticipate Ana's first real attack – all he could do was roll with it, and hope she didn't catch him too hard.

While he was eating dinner with his father, a mostly silent affair, they heard a knock at the door. His father stood up and answered it.

The house had a wall that separated the kitchen from the dining room. Yoseph heard his father open the door and ask, "What is it?"

"I'm here to see Yoseph."

His heard skipped a beat, and he nearly choked on his food. It was Ana's voice.

He quickly stood up and looked for a way out. There was no back door to his house, and the room had nowhere to hide.

He ran into his bedroom and shut the door, too loud. He could hear their footsteps outside.

He looked around, then up, the ever-present escape route. He jumped onto one of the posts of his bed, and up to one of the rafters. He hoped he could hide in the shadows near the ceiling.

Ana opened the door almost immediately, and walked in. His father stayed at the door. He said, "Hm. I don't know where he could have gone."

"That's okay." Ana replied. "I'll find him."

His father looked uncertain for a second, but left the doorway. Ana began searching.

She checked the obvious place first, the closet. She ran a hand through the meager contents, and moved on.

It was a small, bare room, but Ana seemed to search every inch of it. She bent down, and looked under the bed.

_Odin's love, she's meticulous_.

He wasn't so sure about his hiding spot any longer, and when he saw that her back was turned, he leapt to the ground as silently as possible and quickly rolled under the bed, hoping she wouldn't look in the same place twice.

It was unnerving to watch her feet as they paced around the room, but finally, she left. Yoseph strained to hear the front door close.

He stayed in his room the rest of the night. Thankfully, his father never brought the topic up again.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Certainly not my favorite chapter, mostly just filler. _Please_ don't say that Ana is a stalker, because she's not. I just got bored, and I wanted Yoseph to do something James Bond-ish with the ceiling rafters. Just blame me for my lack of creativity. Anyway, you get the point, Ana is getting a little suspicious.


	11. Chapter 11: Crash Landing

****

How to Train a Dragon Rider

Chapter 11

**Crash Landing**

* * *

Yoseph made it to training the next day without any problems.

The teacher, as usual, was more interested in the mug of beer he would reward himself with at the end of the day than actually teaching his pupils.

"Alright, sparring today. Grab a sword, and get to work."

The children walked over to the supply racks and began collecting their bladed weapons. Yoseph grabbed a small dagger, and looked over the wickedly sharp instrument. He asked, "Shouldn't we be using _dull_ weapons if we're sparring?"

"Oh, yes!" The instructor said. "Forgot about that. Sparring knives are in that chest over there."

The children dropped the sharp weapons they were holding and walked over to the wooden container. Yoseph looked down into it.

The "sparring knives" were little more than old weapons that hadn't been sharpened. Some of them seemed in relatively good condition, while others were covered in thick patches of rust.

He picked a short blade that seemed like it had more metal than rust, and walked away to make room for the other trainees.

Cass chose this as one of the days to partner up with him. While he could hold his own with a spear, and certainly a shield, Yoseph would be no match for the other boy with only a knife.

Cass' weapon was one of the longest viking swords, nearly a foot and a half long, and jaggedly curved up the whole blade - the patches of rust only further demonized it. Yoseph really hoped there were no sharp sections left.

"Just like old times, eh, Yoseph?" Cass taunted.

Yoseph stared back silently, carefully watching the other boy move. He ducked under the first blow, and then sidestepped another. He tried to bring his own blade up for a block, but it was much easier just to step away from Cass' flailing strikes.

He smiled at Cass as he moved back. "Forgot how to use a sword while I was gone, Cass? You should have hit me by now."

Cass scowled, and began attacking faster. The instructor took notice, and yelled at the two, "Yoseph, stop dancing around! _Hit_ him with something!"

After years of doing it, Yoseph could more or less _think_ while he instinctively ducked and weaved. He tried to remember a good combination with a knife, but he had never spent much time with one as a weapon. And when he did, he usually had a shield with him.

Cass reached forward with a jab, and Yoseph grabbed his wrist. With his other hand, he grabbed the handle of the other boy's weapon, and forced it out of his grip.

The other boy recoiled, and Yoseph backed away. His right hand held both his own knife and Cass' sword, and he reached over to take the longer weapon in his left hand.

Cass glared at him, and ran over to the wall of the stadium. He grabbed another sword off the wall, and charged at Yoseph again.

Yoseph backed away, and held the two blades in front of him. He caught Cass' first strike with his left blade, and sparks flew as the sharper weapon deflected up the curved sword.

Cass came back around, and Yoseph held both his weapons in an X. He caught the blade again.

He kept the long and short blades in their formation, and continued to catch Cass's furious blows. The other boy screamed loudly, and Yoseph began backing up.

It wasn't unlike using a shield with both hands; an unconventional tactic Yoseph had used before. Cass came forward with a downstroke again, and Yoseph caught it. He pushed the blades down and to the side, and took a step forward. Now he was too close for Cass to use his long sword.

Yoseph pulled up the shorter blade in his left hand, and hit the hilt against Cass' forehead. The boy dropped his sword, and staggered back.

"Do that again."

Yoseph looked up to the instructor. He was looking at Yoseph with – awe? Curiosity?

"Warren! Get over here!" The man yelled

A boy left his session to go to the instructor's side.

"Warren, I want you to attack this boy – wait, not with that, use this–"

The man left, and went towards the weapon racks. He came back with a long spear.

"You, just do what you did before." He said, and waved his hand.

The other boy looked uncertainly at Yoseph, holding a sword in each hand, but obeyed. He charged at him.

Yoseph held his weapons on front of himself in an X again. When the spear had almost reached him, he ducked one way, and forced the blades the other direction. They caught the spear, and the other boy was forced into Yoseph by his own momentum.

Yoseph again lifted the smaller blade hilt-first, and caught the boy in the stomach. He pulled it back, and tapped him on the head, lighter this time than he had with Cass. The boy fell backwards, the wind knocked out of him.

"Ha!" The instructor laughed. "That's what I like to see! Give your friend his knife back, and get back to sparring. No more sharp weapons." He walked forward, and picked up the sharp sword Cass had grabbed off the wall.

When he left, Cass stared at Yoseph with murder in his eyes. Like the last time Yoseph had upstaged him, he began attacking Yoseph with a vengeance.

The sparring continued on. Without a shield, Yoseph dodged what looked to be the more painful strikes while Cass pounded away at him. He was sure he would have some ripe bruises tomorrow to replace the one that had faded away on his eye.

Then, someone yelled, "Look!"

The children in the arena stopped sparring, and looked to the boy who had cried out – he was staring at the sky. The other trainees followed suit.

Yoseph was hit hard in the back of the head. He cried, "Ah!" and looked behind him to see Cass.

"Sorry, must have slipped." The other boy replied, smiling.

Yoseph rubbed the wound, and looked back to the sky. He saw a sight he had missed sorely in the past week, and felt joy leap inside himself for a moment, but it was quickly stomped out when he realized what was happening.

There was a dragon in the sky – a real dragon! It was a blue fury, and Yoseph's trained eye picked out a rider. The happiness he felt at the sight died after that.

The dragon was in a falling spiral, out of control. They fell into the forest on the other side of the island, and the rider was thrown clear just before his dragon entered the tree line. Yoseph didn't think, he dropped his weapon and started running. He had to get there first.

If there had been a rider sent from Soare – none of the riders from Berk, nor Carmine had a fury of that color – something serious must have happened. He quickly left the arena behind and began running through the village. The arena was as far away as it could possibly be from the crash site, as if it had been built there for his personal inconvenience.

Not only had they been spotted by the Demen, they had also crashed in the woods. There was no telling what had gone wrong, but no matter what the cost, Yoseph had to help them get out of there.

As he ran through the village, Ana appeared in his path. "Yoseph–"

"Not now, Ana!" Yoseph said, running past her. This was no time for decency.

He kept running when he reached the woods. He weaved between trees and ducked under branches as fast as he could. Luckily, the trees were far less dense on this side of the island, and the undergrowth far less prominent.

He reached the crash site gasping for breath. He pulled back a branch, and froze at what he saw.

It was a blue fury, as he had suspected, but the saddle was certainly not from Soare. The style was different, and the straps that held it to the dragon's body were aligned differently.

But the most notable difference was in the strap holding the dragon's wing to its side. The fury was attempting to twist its neck and bite the strip of leather, but couldn't bend its head back far enough.

Then, the dragon's rider came through the brambles. He walked up to the dragon, and tightened the strap Yoseph had been observing. The dragon yelped, and stopped struggling.

Yoseph could hear more men coming, and slowly lowered the branch he had been holding back into it original position. He held it back only enough for him to see.

The Demen punched through the woods. They entered the clearing, and pointed their weapons at the dragon. It cringed under the sight of the instruments, but did not make a return threat.

The men looked to the rider, who said, "I got it. Thing threw me off, but I got the wing strap on before we hit the ground.

The men relaxed. One of them stepped forward and said, "Excellent job, Cedric. How did the attack with Roc go?"

"Just as we planned. They never knew what hit them. The ship should be back in a day or two."

The rider was from _Demean_? That wasn't possible. How could they treat their dragons like this, yet, have them remain so docile? The fury could have easily taken on all of the men, even with its wing tied.

This was not good – he had to tell the others about this. The Demen had dragons, and worse, dragon riders.

* * *

That night, the chief of the Demen addressed the village.

"The raid was a success, and most of the Bennian's fields were destroyed. They will not be able to bother us any time in the near future, and we have proven the power of our new weapons to our enemies. The ship containing the new dragon riders shall arrive home in a few days."

As he continued, Yoseph asked his father, "Why didn't anyone tell me you had _dragons_?"

"Son, no offence, but you're not much of a sociable one." Obur answered. "I know we – we haven't had much time to talk recently. And without any of your old friends here to talk to–"

"My old friends?" Yoseph interrupted. " What old friends?"

"Well, there's–" Yoseph's father struggled to remember the name. "There's that one boy – he used to fight with you in training–"

"Ben?" Yoseph supplied for him.

"Yes, that one boy, Ben. He's on that ship that's coming back soon."

"Why is he there?" Yoseph asked.

"Because," Obur said, "he's learning from that fellow Roc. He's going to ride a dragon."

.


	12. Chapter 12: Dragons and Demen

I'd like to thank my new beta, Paraxenos, for this re-release. She has generously agreed to beta not just one, but both of my stories.

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 12

**Dragons and Demen**

* * *

Rauge entered the conference room, joining Kleave and Stoick around the table.

"Any news?" He asked.

"Snotlout just reported." Kleave answered, "Yoseph hasn't found anything yet. We're going to let him stay the night before they fly back."

"At least nothing's gone wrong yet." Rauge said.

Suddenly, a slight figure burst through the door behind him, out of breath.

"Quinn! You're back! For a while we thought you'd forgotten about us."

"Sir!" He the boy said, still panting, "There've been more attacks. The Kealian's fields were lost."

"Again? Who was it this time?" Kleave asked. It was unusual to have so many attacks in one season, even in a bad year.

"That's the problem, sir." He said, "No one _knows_ who did it. Apparently, the crops just burst into flames in the middle of the night."

"Was anything stolen?" Stoick asked.

"As far as I could tell, no." Quinn answered. "But I couldn't get very close. The Keals wouldn't let my dragon go over the fields."

Kleave turned to Rauge. "Go get Snotlout. Maybe Yoseph can figure out what's going on."

* * *

On the day he was supposed to meet Hiccup, Yoseph carefully observed the sheep fields. It had been a few days since meeting with Carmine, and hopefully, Ana would have given up her vigil over the easiest entry point to the woods.

He was on the roof of one of the outermost houses, and sighed in relief. He slid down to the ground, and walked to the edge of the forest, beginning his hike.

Ana was reclining against one of the houses, and watched him enter the woods. She waited for a few minutes, then, she began following him.

* * *

Hiccup was waiting at the meeting point, bored out of his mind. Now he wished he had accepted Fishlegs' offer to bring the chessboard, even if he could only play against himself. Toothless, bored as well, was taking a nap in the underbrush. If you didn't know where to look for him, he was almost invisible.

Near midday, Yoseph finally appeared. "Hiccup! You have to tell Kleave, they have dragon riders!"

Hiccup looked at Yoseph, uncomprehending. "What?"

"The Demen, they have dragon riders! One of them landed here yesterday, and the rest should be here tomorrow. They have this harness–"

Suddenly, they heard a _crack_, followed by a high pitched scream. It came from the direction Yoseph had just come from.

Both boys jumped up and started to the site of the noise; Hiccup lagging behind, due to his prosthetic leg.

When Yoseph reached it, he found Ana, caught in a bush. She looked up and screamed at him, "Yoseph! Get me out of here!"

There was a small rise behind him, and he could hear Hiccup climbing up it, soon to be in Ana's view. As inconspicuously as possible, he reached a leg back, and knocked him back down. He hoped she didn't hear the "Oof!" Hiccup made.

He said as loud as he could, "Ana, what are you doing here?"

Hiccup realized what was happening, and stopped trying to get back up.

She screamed back at him, "Shut up and get me out of this mess!"

Yoseph came forward, and as slowly as possible, helped pull the girl out of her entrapment.

Meanwhile, Hiccup went back as quietly as he could and tried to wake his dragon. He whispered as loudly as he dared, "Toothless! Wake up!"

The dragon opened one eye, and regarded the boy. Hiccup began pulling at the harness, trying to pull the night fury further into the trees. He heard Ana ask, "What's down there?"

"Where?" Yoseph replied.

"There! Where you just were!"

"Ana, what are you doing here?" Yoseph countered, trying to buy some time.

Ana regarded Yoseph for a second, then turned around and began walking.

"Ana, there's nothing down there!" Yoseph said, running after her. He began walking backwards in front of her, trying to slow her down. "You're going to be really disappointed!"

Toothless finally got up and let Hiccup pull him through the trees. The disappeared behind some low-hanging branches just a Yoseph and Ana reached the clearing.

Yoseph stopped, and Ana stepped around him to get a good look at the area.

"See? Nothing." Yoseph said. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

She turned around. "What were you doing?" She demanded.

"I was just walking, Ana. Is that so hard to believe?"

Her features were scrutinizing. "You've been acting weird, Yoseph, ever since you came back. Why won't you tell me what's going on?"

"Because nothing _is _going on, Ana!"

She paused. "So you were just walking."

"Yes!" Yoseph exclaimed.

"Nothing else."

"Yes!"

"Fine. Then let's walk together."

Yoseph sighed. "Alright."

He began walking back towards the village, while Ana kept a close eye on him. He could have lost her easily enough in the woods, but he didn't dare leave her alone to fall into another bush.

He tried to follow the easiest path, but on this side of the island, the woods were thick. He could see why Ana was so skeptical about what he was doing – this was a terrible place to "just walk."

They eventually came to a small stream. There were rocks jutting out of the surface, but otherwise, no way of getting across. Yoseph, with years of experience riding a jumping to and from dragons, easily jumped from rock to rock. Ana had no such experience.

"Just jump! It's not that difficult." Yoseph encouraged from the other bank.

Ana looked uncertain. "Maybe we should just. . . Find another place to cross."

"There _is_ no other place to cross, unless you want to go all the way back to where we started and go from there."

She looked fearfully at the swift current, and nodded. "That sounds good. Let's do that."

Yoseph sighed, and jumped back to one of the rocks, carefully balancing himself. Maybe he could support both of them. "Just grab my hand, you'll be fine."

Ana looked at the hand, and grabbed it. She hesitated.

Then, she jumped to the closest rock. Yoseph pulled hard on her arm to keep her balanced.

She cautiously stepped to the next rock.

Yoseph said, "Okay, now I'm going to step over to the next–"

"Ah!" Ana squealed as she slipped off the rock, pulling Yoseph with her. They fell into the cold waters, and were swept down the stream.

After a few dozen meters, the stream became slower and shallower. Yoseph stood up, waist-deep in the water, still holding tight to Ana's arm. He pulled them both to the bank.

When she left the water, Ana curled into a ball and began shivering. Yoseph sat down next to her.

"This is _your_ fault!" She screamed.

"How is it my fault?" Yoseph retorted. "You're the one who chose to follow me."

"I only followed you because you were avoiding me! You stupid, irritating. . . Ug!" She growled.

Yoseph was silent. "So what if I stopped avoiding you?"

She looked up, startled. "What?"

"If I stopped avoiding you, would you stop trying to follow me?" Yoseph said.

"I – I guess." She stuttered in reply.

Yoseph looked up at the sun. It was still midday, and he was beginning to warm up. "We should start moving." He said.

Ana got up, and followed closely as Yoseph began making his way through the woods again. "So, you'll stop avoiding me?" She asked.

"I never said that." Yoseph replied. He looked over his shoulder, and saw that Ana had a furious expression on her face.

He smiled like he hadn't done in a long time. It was nice, being out in the sun, having fun with this beautiful girl.

Beautiful – where had that come from? Sure, she was pretty, he had noticed that much. Her hair was still soaked with water, and he was amazed at how different it made her look. He caught himself staring, and quickly looked forward again.

* * *

The next day, Ana was waiting outside of Yoseph's house. He was about to go outside and greet her, but then he had an idea. He might as well have fun with this.

When Ana had come to his house a few days ago, he decided he would need an escape route. He had used a nail hammer to pull the nails holding his window frame to the wall, so they stuck out far enough to easily grab them.

He went into his room, and used the hammer to pull them out the rest of the way. It was much easier than taking the window out of his prison at Berk, where he only had a knife to chisel the nails to the surface.

He put a hand on the center of the window, and took the four outer pieces off. Carefully, he used his other hand to place each of the four pieces of glass onto his bed, followed by the wooden crosspiece.

The hole was about a foot and a half square. It was small, but he could make it through. He climbed through head first, and held onto the lip of the roof to pull his legs out and onto the ground.

Circled around until he was behind Ana, then walked forward down an ally until he was next to her. Her gaze was fixed on the doorway across the street, and she didn't see him.

He walked closer. She was wearing an angry expression, probably wondering why he was so late. He walked until he was right next to her, then leaned with his back against the same wall.

"Leave me alone." She snapped.

"Okay." Yoseph said. "Guess I'll just leave without you then."

She turned her head, and her face became even angrier. Yoseph had to laugh.

Ana was not amused. She grabbed his arm, and began pulling him along.

"Where are we going?" Yoseph asked.

"_You're_ going to training. I'm going to walk with you." Ana replied.

Yoseph started laughing again. It had been a long time since he had done something fun.

She glared at him. "Shut up."

He stopped laughing, but still had a smile on his face.

* * *

The next day, a ship pulled into the harbor at Demean. It carried a crew of viking men to run it, but the real reason the crowd at the dock was there was for the children on the boat. They were the few that had elected, and been chosen, to become the second generation of dragon riders from Demean; in fact, to the extent of their knowledge, the second generation of dragon riders in the world.

As many of the boys around him climbed out of the rocking craft, one boy moved closer to the edge of the dock. When he reached the side, a hand reached down to help him.

The boy looked up to the owner of the hand, and confusion swept over his face for a second. Then, he smiled and exclaimed, "Yoseph!"

He grabbed the hand, and his old friend pulled him up to the solid wood of the dock. "You've been gone for ages! Where have you been all these years?"

Yoseph grinned back at his companion. "They kidnapped me, that night we were raided," he explained. "I got back just before you set out."

Yoseph had nearly forgotten about his old friend after all the stresses of the mission. Years ago, in training, they had become friends after meeting at the bottom of the skill pool of at the arena. Yoseph had guessed that Ben had decided to join the Demean dragon riders to get out of arena training, where he would be beaten on by the other boys (likely including Cass) on a daily basis.

As if responding to his thoughts, Ben said, "Sorry if you're still cooped up in that stupid arena. If I had known you were coming back, maybe I would have found another unfortunate soul for them to beat on."

Yoseph chuckled. "I learned a lot more being held prisoner than they've learnt here."

"I don't doubt it." Ben replied.

A shadow passed over them, and Yoseph looked up. There was a line of five furies flying towards the village.

"And there are the dragons." Yoseph stated, suddenly losing his smile.

Ben looked up with him, slightly confused at his quick mood change. "Yup. There's Roc."

* * *

Ana, slowly and laboriously, pushed her way through the forest. She was trying to find the spot she had found Yoseph in yesterday, but was not enjoying moving through the densest part of the forest on the island. It felt like she was going around the entire island in a big circle.

Her ankle caught on some vines, and she stumbled forward before regaining her balance. She had to find the place eventually, and she thought she would recognize it when she came to it. Well, she hoped she would.

She tripped again, this time landing on the ground. She turned her head to the side, and looked at the ground.

There was a large footprint. She sat up, and looked closely at it. There was game on the island, but no animal she knew of with a footprint like this one. It was big enough to be a bear, but it didn't look quite right – but what did she know, she had never gone hunting before. Maybe it was old, and had just been misshapen by another animal, or the wind.

The print was pointed into the island, closer to the center. She stood up, and began walking the path that the animal seemed to have taken.

She fell through a dense bramble of forests, and grunted when she hit the ground. She looked up, and realized that she had fallen into a small clearing.

She looked around, and tried to identify some landmark that would tell her where she was. No such luck.

"Grr!" She growled. She kicked a nearby tree. She was never going to find anything this way.

A loose branch on the tree finally gave way and fell, showering Ana with dirt and debris caught in its leaves. She fell again, screaming in surprise.

When she opened her eyes on the ground, she saw a strange, blue-grey stone in front of her eye. She sat up, and took it in her hand. It was surprisingly light, and felt oddly warm in her hand. She began to study it more.

* * *

"Welcome, to our state-of-the-art dragon training facility!"

When they had landed, the riders had been greeted by almost everyone in the village. Training had been canceled today for their return, and the head rider, Roc, had decided to let the Demen children come with them as they deposited their dragons to their holding chambers. To Yoseph, they seemed more the hut he had been tied up in at Berk than any sense of a home.

The place was dug deep into the ground, to nullify the fire hazard of so many dragons so close together. The wide hallway was flanked on either side by cells separated by iron bars. As they moved deeper, they began to hear small noises - they were getting closer to the dragons.

Roc and his four riders led the way, each holding onto the saddle of their respective dragon. Each of them had the same saddle Yoseph had seen on the earlier dragon, with a thick strip of leather holding each dragon's left wing close to its side.

They finally reached the deepest part of the tunnel, where the dragons were being kept. Yoseph looked around at the cells on either side.

The dragons lifted their heads to watch the humans pass through. Most of them were young, not even large enough to carry a young viking on their back.

Roc narrated his tour. "These are our youngest dragons, almost ready to be trained. It's almost impossible to train a fully-grown dragon, so we have to start with the hatchlings."

The way they treated them, it was no wonder they couldn't ride a fully grown fury without being disintegrated. Even with the hatchlings, they had to secure the saddles so they wouldn't fly away.

"Where do you find the babies?" Cass, also on the tour, asked.

"We found an island not far from here, where the dragons nest," Roc answered, "and we go there every few months to bring new ones back."

Yoseph noticed that he didn't mention _how_ they caught the furies.

They reached the end of the tunnel, where a man was waiting for them.

"Cedric!" Roc greeted him. "How go the dragons?"

"All fed and watered." He answered. "Think you could spare a few of these lads to get the manure out? It's starting to stink in here."

"I'll see what they can do." Roc replied. He took a set of keys from off the wall, and unlocked one of the doors to a cell. "In you go," He said to his dragon, a red fury. The dragon looked at him, and dutifully walked into its cell. He looked to the children. "You just have to show the dragons who's boss, and they'll do what you tell them."

Yoseph hated this place. He hated everyone here.

He looked at Ben, standing beside him. He thought of Ana, and the other children who worked day after day in the arena, trying to impress their parents and superiors.

No, he didn't hate everyone, not the misguided ones. He hated the ones who had chosen this, who had done this to such intelligent creatures.

He stared at Roc, hiding the anger behind his eyes.

.


	13. Chapter 13: No Good News

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 13

**No Good News**

* * *

Carmine leapt off her dragon and onto the top of a house, while her dragon swooped away into the night. While not nearly as dark as a night fury, Rubian's red-grey color was more than adequate for hiding in the night sky, if no one was looking for her.

Carmine ran along the centerline of the rooftop, and jumped to the top of a nearby house.

She hadn't had a chance to get into the action of Yoseph's mission, so, she had created her own. When Hiccup had come back with his incomplete message about the Demen having dragon riders, she decided that they would have to get the information before the next rendezvous. She would sneak into Demean in the dead of night and contact Yoseph.

The biggest problem was that she had absolutely no idea where his house was – maybe that should have been communicated during her first uneventful visit.

Well, she knew Yoseph had a habit of sleeping outside under the stars, so she would start there. She looked around from her perch, and, seeing the rooftops bare, slid down the roof to the ground below. She made a muffled grunt as she absorbed the impact of the fall.

She would start by cautiously searching the streets and rooftops. From there – well, one of the most important traits of a dragon rider acting solo was the ability to improvise. She would think of something.

Carmine walked through the streets, ignoring the urge to hide in the shadows. She would just look even more suspicious to anyone looking out their window this late at night – unlikely, as vikings were known for their heavy sleeping habits.

She walked as nonchalantly as she could as she scanned the rooftops. She looked up towards the houses one side of the street, then the other, but found nothing.

She kept walking, and turned a corner. She spotted a figure at the far end of the street. She broke into a light jog, slowing down as she approached it.

When she was close behind him, she tried to make out the boy. He was the right height, with dark hair – it could have been Yoseph. Only one way to find out.

She crept closer, and when she was just behind his shoulder, she whispered, "_Yoseph!_"

He jumped, and turned to face her. "_Carmine_!"

He grabbed her arm, and pulled her to the side of a nearby house.

"What are you doing here?" He whispered forcefully.

"I'm here to talk to you." Carmine whispered back. "You told Hiccup the Demen had dragon riders."

"What were you _doing_?" Yoseph said. "Just walking out in the middle of the street?"

Carmine replied in a neutral tone, "_You_ said that if you were seen trying to hide, it would just make people suspicious. Remember, that mission on Kauger?"

"I–" Yoseph began, then stopped. "You're right. Sorry."

Carmine smiled. She enjoyed outwitting Yoseph. "Now, what about the dragons?"

Yoseph grimaced. "I was just going there myself. Follow me." He said, and began walking.

They walked through the streets and exited the village. "Where–" Carmine asked,

"Shh." Yoseph turned around and put a finger to his lips. He crouched low, and began moving more quietly. Carmine quieted, and followed his lead.

They eventually came to the gate bored into the hillside. Yoseph took a careful look around, and when he was sure the cost was clear, he moved up to it. Carmine followed close behind.

He opened the gate a crack and peered inside. After a second, he opened it more, and beckoned Carmine inside. He shut the door behind them.

"What is this place?" Carmine asked.

"This is where they keep the dragons." Yoseph answered.

They started down the hallway. When they neared the end of the tunnel, Carmine looked around at the young dragons imprisoned on either side. The furies, still awake this late at night, swiveled their heads to follow the two riders as they passed through.

"Where did they find them?" Carmine asked.

"They must have found a nest." Yoseph answered. "Maybe even the one at –"

Just then, they heard the door creak open at the other end of the hallway. They both looked back, and immediately dove in opposite directions. Carmine hid behind some closed bags on the right side of the hallway, Yoseph on the left side behind crates of saddle-making materials.

Carmine looked down, and noticed grain on the floor of her hiding spot. She lifted her hand, and held it to a tear in the sack she was hiding behind. "Wheat?" She whispered to herself.

A man walked into the tunnel, and made his way down to where the dragons where being kept. He was one of the men that had flown home with Roc.

His manner clearly said, "I don't have to be here but you're lucky I am." He when to a group of barrels at the very edge of the cavern, and pulled out a few fish. He tossed them into the nearest dragon cage, and the fury inside it hungrily gulped them down. He did the same with all of the other dragons, until he reached the last one.

He walked up to the bars after turning around from the last dragon he fed, and said to the blue fury, "You're still on the bare diet. That'll teach you to work yourself up in the air."

He began walking back, and Yoseph glanced over the edge of his hiding spot. He could see the man walking towards Carmine's position, and frantically looked around.

The man had almost reached the bags when he heard a _thump_ from behind him. He turned around, and Carmine lifted her head up. Seeing that he was distracted, she quietly climbed out of her hiding place.

The viking man walked over to the saddle that had fallen, and put it back on top of the crate it had been resting on. As he turned back around, Carmine rolled behind him and leapt behind a group of the boxes.

The man turned back around, and grabbed one of the sacks Carmine had been hiding behind. He untied the top, and poured a pile of the grain onto the blue fury's cage. He then tied the sack back up, and threw it back into the heap of bags. He turned around and left.

When the door loudly creaked shut again, Yoseph and Carmine stood up. Carmine immediately ran over to the blue fury's cage. It was the same one that Yoseph had seen crash into the woods two days ago.

It was timidly sniffing the pile of wheat that had been dropped into its dwelling. It looked up at Carmine and Yoseph as they approached. When they neared, it backed away from the bars, growling.

Carmine looked down at the pile of grain. "They can't feed their dragons like this – they'll die."

She ran over to the barrels of fish, and grabbed one from each container. She ran back, and threw them into the cage. The dragon looked up at her for a second, and then hungrily gulped them all down.

Yoseph looked behind him, at the cage across the hall. It housed three young furies, one of them a blue-gray, like Ceara.

He walked over, and put his hand through the bars. The gray fury growled, and Yoseph pulled his hand back as the dragon lunged for it, teeth extended. "How can they treat them like this?" He wondered aloud.

"This is why there were so few dragons on the island." Carmine said, staring sadly at the blue fury in its cage. "They're running away from the Demen."

"But why haven't the furies just come and destroyed the village?" Yoseph asked. "They could just burn the place down, and get their hatchlings back."

"But they don't _know_ where the hatchlings are." Carmine realized. "If they destroyed the village, there's no way they would be able to find them. That's why they can't do it."

Yoseph reflected on the realization. Then, he stood up. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

The dragon's eyes followed them as they left. When they finally reached the door, they slowly pushed it open, just enough to squeeze out.

As they pushed the door shut again, Yoseph realized something. "They've been running away to _us_!"

Carmine looked at him. "What?"

Yoseph continued with his revelation. "That's why we've had so many furies pick riders recently. They've been coming to us so we can help them find their hatchlings!"

"And since they've been coming to us, we haven't had to go to their island, so we didn't realize the Demen were coming there!" Carmine realized.

"Oh gods. . ." Yoseph exclaimed. "You have to tell Kleave. I'll find out as much as I can about the dragons."

"Okay." Carmine said. "We'll send someone here in three days. Come to the meeting place."

Yoseph nodded, and she began running to where her dragon was waiting. Yoseph watched until she disappeared in the woods, and then began walking back towards his house. He doubted he would get much sleep.

* * *

The next day, Yoseph went to training and found it crowded with many of the young vikings that had returned on the boat yesterday. He walked into the arena.

"Yoseph!" Ben called.

Yoseph turned, and walked over. "Why are you here? Don't you have your own training with Roc?" He asked.

Ben replied, "No, he wants to let the dragons rest for a day, so we're all stuck here today."

Yoseph looked around for an instructor. "What are we doing today?" he asked.

"Sparring." Ben replied, "Like every other day."

Yoseph sighed. "I wish our parents would find a teacher who actually _cared _about this job. It worked much better that way on Soa–"

Yoseph caught himself. He had almost forgotten, he wasn't supposed to know the name of the island he was held on.

"Where?" Ben asked.

"On – on the island I was held on." Yoseph said. "I don't remember its name."

Ben looked at him suspiciously, and Yoseph tried to look nonchalant. As a diversion, he walked over to the knife case. "Might as well get started." He said.

Ben looked at him incredulously, but began walking over.

* * *

Ana sat outside her house, turning the stone over in her hands. It was the strangest thing she had ever seen – the color was some bizarre mix of blue and grey, and in the right light, it could look like either one. It was also light – so light she could barley feel its weight in her hand, but still strong enough not to bend or break, no matter how hard she pushed on it.

She thought about giving it back to Yoseph – it was probably his, she had found it in the spot she had discovered him in. And maybe, if it didn't belong to him, there _was_ someone else in the woods with him that day. Either way, she would learn something.

She grasped her hand around the stone, and stood up. She began making her way to the arena.

* * *

Yoseph lifted his shield to ward off Ben's blow. The instructor was almost making an effort today, and everyone was using a shield on their right arm and had a weapon in their left. The shield, Yoseph could use – the weapon was even less useful than usual, and he had nowhere near the coordination required to use a combination.

He returned Ben's strike with a sloppy lunge at his midsection, but his blade was intercepted. The force of Ben's blow knocked the weapon from Yoseph's hand.

"Ha!" He said, and pointed his own knife at Yoseph.

Yoseph lifted his shield, and batted the blade away. Ben came back with a stab, but Yoseph pushed that away as well. He rolled away towards his fallen sword, picking it up as he came over the top. He turned around and faced Ben, smiling.

Ben frowned. "Come on!"

"Yoseph!"

Yoseph turned when he heard his name. He saw Ana coming from the arena entrance – what was she doing here?

She spotted him, and began walking towards him. Unfortunately, she was intercepted by Cass.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. "Girls are supposed to be sewing and cooking, it's the men who fight."

Ana looked up at the boy in her way. "I–"

"What's this?" Cass interrupted, noticing the blue stone in her hand. He reached down and grabbed it, pulling it from between her fingers.

"It's Yoseph's" She answered.

Cass looked closely at the scale, biting it between his teeth. "What is it?" Ha asked.

When Yoseph saw the scale, he instinctively reached down to his pocket – it was missing. He felt a moment of panic, before regaining his bearings.

He began walking towards the boy. "Cass!"

The young Viking turned around. "Yoseph, what's this that your girlfriend's got? Some rock you gave her?"

Yoseph stopped in front of Cass. He held out his hand. "Give it to me."

Cass smiled deviously. He held the scale away, leaning his head forward until it was just inches from Yoseph's and said, "What're you gonna do about it?"

Yoseph had been on Demean for more than a week now, and he had not enjoyed any of it. He was away from Soare, away from his dragon, and he had constantly had _something_ irritating him. He didn't get angry very often, but Cass was pushing him over the edge.

He quickly took stock of the situation. Cass had the scale in his right hand, and no weapon. Yoseph had dropped his sword, but still had his shield strapped to his arm. He squeezed his other fist tightly.

"Nothing? Well then, I think I'll just keep it. I wonder how many times I can skip it on the water–"

He never finished the sentence. Yoseph twisted and brought his right shoulder forward and placed his right foot behind Cass. He swung his shield hard at the other boy's head. The metal rim hit him in the temple, and he staggered back.

Yoseph swept his right leg back, and Cass toppled to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. The scale fell from his hand.

Yoseph bent down and picked it up. He unstrapped his shield, and let it fall on Cass' body. "Umph!" The young viking grunted as his limbs spasmed from the blow of the heavy wood on his chest.

Yoseph looked around at the shocked faces of the other children, then, he walked slowly towards the exit of the arena. The instructor, standing next to it, had his mouth open in astonishment, and kept his gaze fixed on Cass' limp from.

When Yoseph passed the stone gate, the instructor looked back at the boy's retreating figure. Then, the stout man ran to Cass' side, and pulled him up. The boy's eyes had a glazed look to them, and he flinched when the man brought his hand to the dark bruise on his temple.

"Lad, get out of here and show that to the healer." He said. Cass nodded clumsily, and the man let go of him.

"The rest of you, get back to work!"

As the rest of the children murmured to themselves and began turning away, Ben looked up at Ana, his shield and sword resting at his sides, his mouth open.

Ana looked up and met his eyes, then turned around and watched Cass stumble out of the arena. The next time she saw Yoseph, she would need to get answers.


	14. Chapter 14: Dragon Taming

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 14

**Dragon Taming**

* * *

Yoseph sat on a rock cliff, overlooking the sea. He turned the scale over in his hands. He wondered how Ana had gotten it – but that wasn't what was most important. He had nearly blown his cover. He couldn't just knock someone around like that without consequences, but Cass had been so irritating since he came back. . .

He looked down into the water, not far below. The sun was beginning to set, and the twilight made it hard to see through the gloom of the water.

He thought he saw a cobalt shape moving through the murk. He imagined it was Ceara. She loved the water – she had taken him down and nearly drowned him on several occasions, before she realized that he couldn't hold his breath for as long as she could. He had practiced for months, but he would still sometimes have to leave her to roam the ocean floor alone.

He stared at the shape in the water. Two bright cyan orbs stared back like eyes, the same color as Ceara's. _Wait a minute. . .That is–_

"Yoseph?"

He jumped when he heard a voice behind him, and turned around to see Ana standing behind him. He quickly turned back and looked at the ocean, but the shape had moved on.

He looked back at Ana. "Ana, what's wrong?"

"Everyone's worried about you." She replied, "You can't just disappear like that."

"Not from _you_ I can't." Yoseph murmured.

Ana smiled, and sat down next to him. She looked at the scale Yoseph was turning over in his hands. "What is that?" She asked. "I had a feeling it might be yours."

Yoseph stopped, and looked down at the scale himself. "It's just – it's a good luck charm."

"But what _is_ it?" Ana persisted. "Some kind of rock?"

Yoseph was silent. "I don't want to talk about it." He finally said.

"Yoseph, what happened to you?" Ana asked. "Since you came back, you've been acting _weird_. You won't even talk to me. I just want to know about what happened to you, all those years you were gone."

Yoseph kept his gaze fixed on the scale.

"A lot of things happened."

Ana turned her head and looked at Yoseph. "You just don't want to talk about them?"

There was a pause. "No."

Just then, a voice interrupted their conversation.

"Yoseph! That was awesome! How did you do it?"

Both of the children turned around to see Ben walking up to them.

"I mean, you just took him down out of nowhere!" He continued, shaking his fists in front of him to emphasize his point. "Can you teach me that?"

Yoseph smiled at his old friend's antics, and stood up.

"Easy." He said. "You just put a leg behind them–" He stepped behind the other boy's leg "–and an arm in front of them–" he held his arm in front of Ben's face "–and pull your leg back." he swept his foot back, but only caught one of his friend's feet, holding him up with a hand on his shoulder.

"Wow. Those vikings that captured you, they must have been–"

He paused when he saw Ana glaring at him with her arms crossed. He looked to Yoseph in confusion.

Yoseph, not seeing the glare, replied. "Yeah. Back – back where I was held, there were vikings who could do way more amazing things than that."

Ben smiled back. "You know, Roc is having a dragon training session tomorrow. You're welcome to come watch."

Yoseph's smile faltered, but he remembered his promise to find out as much as he could about the dragons.

He turned away, and tried to sound cheerful. "I'll be there." He turned back around. "I should. . . Probably get back home."

The other two nodded, and he began jogging back towards the village.

Ben turned toward Ana. "Since when were you two friends?"

* * *

The next day, many of the village's viking teens who were not involved with dragon training sat on the sidelines outside the dragon holding hall, where Roc was holding his lesson. Yoseph suspected that many of them were just here to get out of regular training.

Cass was not among them, thankfully. Yoseph feared how the other boy would retaliate for his earlier beating in the arena, and knowing Cass, _he _would be the one without any weapons next time.

The boys who were actually to learn at the session, including Ben, sat in a different group from the others. Apparently, like in regular training, the Demen didn't allow girls to work with the dragons. Yoseph would have loved to see the look on their faces if they saw how well Carmine could handle a fury.

Many of the younger dragons were spread around the entrance to the cave, in small cages. Yoseph noted the blue-grey hatchling from two nights before, turning in small circles, and trying to find a way out of its new prison. He hated Roc even more.

When the young dragon instructor finally arrived, walking out of the holding cave, the trainees stood up. The lesson began.

Roc, with the help of two of his burliest riders, took a red-grey fury out, tying its saddle to a wooden post pounded securely into the ground. He spoke to the congregation, roughly pulling on the dragon's wing harness as he did so. The fury winced at the sharp tug.

"The most important part of taming a dragon," He began, "is the saddle. Every dragon is to wear one at all times outside their chambers. And the most important part of the saddle, is the wing strap." He let go of the dragon, and began walking toward his pupils.

"The strap ensures that the dragons do not have the ability to fly away, if by any chanced they escape their other bindings. The ability to control their flight is also an important part of the first lesson in dragon taming."

He stopped, and his eyes swept over the assembled students. "You have to show the dragon who's boss, who's in charge."

He began walking back towards the dragon. "Before we capture a dragon, we must ensure that they are not old enough to breathe fire. Every single mature dragon is capable of launching a blast that could disintegrate every one of us. If they learn obedience before they can do this, and we teach them how to do it, they will believe that they cannot do it without a human's permission."

Well, that explained why the dragons were so docile. They didn't know that they _could_ be anything else.

He knew it was a risk, but when Roc had mentioned the capture of the furies, he knew that this could be his only chance in a while. He raised his hand.

"Where exactly do you capture the dragons?"

Roc looked over at the secondary body of children. "There is an island where the beasts nest." He answered. "with good winds, it's a day's sailing northwest of here."

That confirmed Yoseph's fears – it _was_ the same island as the dragons that same to Soare.

Roc, oblivious, continued with his lesson. "Walk around, and watch these young dragons. The more they see humans around them, the faster they can be trained. I want everyone to come up here once, and look at the harness on this dragon.

The lesson began. The boys in dragon training began walking around the cages, while the observers stayed near the edges of the fray, staying away from the hatchling cages. Every now and then a new student would walk up to Roc and the red-grey fury and learn about the harness the Demen had devised.

It went on for quite some time, until one of the dragon training students got bored with the setup.

He looked at the cage containing the young blue-grey fury. "Hm." He snorted, "You're not all that dangerous."

He took a dagger from his pocket, and stuck it through the bars of the cage. The small dragon recoiled at first, and the boy laughed.

The dragon's head moved forward slightly, as if in indignation, and bit the blade, teeth extended. The boy began screaming, trying to pull his dagger out of the jaws of the enraged hatchling.

Roc's two riders both ran over to the scene, but neither could pry the blade from the determined fury. Roc looked over at the commotion, and let go of the strap of saddle he had been showing to his current student – Ben.

The dragon tamer ran over, and shouted at the boy, "Let go! Let go of it!"

The boy, who had miraculously managed to hand on for so long, let go, and fell to the ground. The dragon jolted backwards, and the dagger fell out of its mouth when it hit the back end of the small cage. Roc quickly reached a deft hand through the bars and pulled the instrument out before the young dragon could recover from its daze.

The large fury by Ben that had been being used as an example seized its chance, and tugged on the rope holding it to the anchored post. Ben turned around, startled.

The dragon lowered its head, and opened its mouth. Is bare gums made it out to be far less threatening than it really was.

Ben held out his arms in a useless reflex to stop the dragon, and paused. He looked at the empty mouth, and his brow furrowed. "This one doesn't even have teeth–"

Yoseph had seen dragons in that stance before, just before pouncing. And with the way the dragons were treated, they would never be off-guard enough to retract their teeth – Ben wouldn't know about the sharp, hidden weapons that resided below the grey fury's gumline.

Yoseph ran as fast as he could, and tackled Ben in the side, pushing him down. less than a second later, the dragon leapt forward where the boy had been just moments before, and the line holding it down snapped.

Yoseph immediately got up off his friend and turned to face the free dragon. Its eyes were fixed on him. Yoseph sidestepped away from Ben, and the dragon's head followed him.

Everyone had frozen as they looked over the scene, the full-grown dragon against the small boy that had dared to deny it its prey.

The dragon pounced, and Yoseph dived away. He rolled to his feet somewhat unsteadily.

Roc, away from the action, began running towards the fight. He lifted the dagger he had picked up from the cage, and threw it at the escaped dragon.

In that same instant, the dragon pounced for Yoseph again. The blade imbedded itself in a tree.

Yoseph dived under the dragon's attack, and reached up to the dagger's handle. He yanked it out of the wood.

The dragon reversed, and came at Yoseph again. He snapped his head down, and avoided the open, tooth-filled jaws.

The dragon froze. Yoseph had the dagger poised just below its neck, at the vulnerable artery.

He looked at the dragon, and the dragon stared back. Away from them, Roc clenched is teeth tightly.

Yoseph stepped back slightly, and dropped the dagger. The crowd gasped.

He looked down, and roughly kicked the weapon away. He looked back to the dragon, and took another step back. The fury lowered its head, and showed its teeth.

Yoseph looked away to the side, and held out his hand toward the dragon, palm open. He waited.

The crowd was frozen in shock. The grey fury looked at the mob, locking eyes with Roc for a second. Then, it turned curiously back to the boy in front of it.

It slowly stalked forward. Yoseph saw the movement out of the corner of his eye, but didn't flinch.

The dragon looked at the outstretched hand, and brushed it aside. It moved closer to Yoseph, and sniffed at his pocket.

Yoseph looked down. He slowly reached into the pocket, and pulled out Ceara's scale. The fury looked at it, then back up to Yoseph.

He smiled. After the dragon caught a glimpse of the scale, he put it back into his pocket. Then, he reached out a hand to the dragon's neck, just behind the head. He kept his movements slow and unthreatening.

He began walking forward, and the dragon allowed him to lead it into the holding cave. The crowd watched them go in, but remained stationary.

He led the fury down the tunnel, to an empty chamber. He opened the door to the cell, and the dragon obediently walked in.

He closed the door, and stared at the dragon through the bars. The red-grey fury stared back.

Suddenly, Roc appeared, and Yoseph jumped. The dragon tamer jammed a key into the lock on the door. He twisted it quickly, and tested lock. He sighed.

"That was close. I thought someone was going to lose a leg." He turned to Yoseph. "You handled that dragon well. You just earned a place in my class – I could use a good tamer like you."

Yoseph raised his hands in front of himself. "I don't–"

"Come on!" Roc said, interrupting him. He grabbed the younger boy's arm, and pulled him back to the entrance of the tunnel.

He jerked Yoseph to a stop, and put a hand firmly on his shoulder, keeping him rooted. He spoke to the assembled students.

"Everyone, listen up! This boy is my newest student. He will be a dragon rider, and I can already tell you one of the best. After braving many dangers, escaping captivity, and fighting off his capturers, he has made his way home, to help bring glory to the Demen!"

The crowd cheered, enthralled by Roc's oration. Yoseph stared, speechless. This was not good.

Ben cheered along with the others, happy at his friend's advancement. Roc stepped forward, and spoke to Yoseph. "We're going on a dragon raid tomorrow, and you'll be coming with us. Congratulations."

"Tomorrow?" Yoseph asked.

Roc nodded. "You'll be the first trainee to ride with us. I can guarantee you'll have a great time."

Yoseph wasn't so sure.


	15. Chapter 15: A Dangerous Mission

**How to Train a Dragon Rider**

Chapter 15

**A Dangerous Mission**

* * *

Rauge walked out of the stables on Soare. Since Yoseph and Carmine had left, his most experienced rider was Quinn, who stood on the dragon training field, holding tightly to his fury's saddle.

Once the instructor had reached him, he said, "The dragons are getting even more restless."

"Aye." Rauge replied. "What do you think is going on?"

"I don't know." Quinn replied, and was nearly pulled off his feet as his dragon started walking away. "They keep changing direction when we're flying, and they don't let us land until it's nearly night." He struggled to pull his dragon back to his side.

Rauge looked to the horizon, where the fury had been trying to pull his rider. "I have to go talk to Kleave," he said. "If the dragons want to take us somewhere, we might as well let them.

* * *

Yoseph went through the cupboards of his house, gathering food, water, and weapons. He had to leave and warn the others to leave the island before Roc could get there. Maybe he could steal a dragon from the underground pens.

The scene brought back memories of a similar night, so many years ago, that he had done the same thing. He gathered the supplies on the table, and began packing them into his pack. He grabbed a knife off the table, and looked at the blade. He could see a sliver of his reflection in the metal.

He tucked the blade into his boot, and continued.

He heard the door open, but didn't turn around. It was his father.

"It's a bit early to be packing already, isn't it son?" The man asked.

"Roc wants everyone to leave first thing tomorrow, dad." Yoseph replied, still not looking up.

"Son," Obur said as he closed the door, "I just want you to know – I'm so proud of what you've done. A dragon rider already–" he paused – "Well, that hasn't happened before."

"Thanks, dad." Yoseph replied dryly.

The man sighed. "Before you go, I'd like to tell you – It wasn't my fault, what happened to you when you were born."

Yoseph was silent.

"I know, I could have argued against the elders. And maybe I should have." He continued sadly. "I just want you to know – after what your mother did, even after she was sent away, I believed in her decision."

Yoseph slowly packed the remaining items on the table, still looking down.

"I've been speaking with the elders." Obur said. "They say – maybe, when you come back – that we can find her. And maybe bring her back. Roc has a lot of authority with the council, and he says it might be possible."

Yoseph stopped packing. After waiting for a response, the boy's father sighed again, and lumbered off to bed. The floorboards creaked loudly in the empty house.

Yoseph closed his eyes. He was too young to remember at the time, but he had imagined the scene many times.

* * *

_The boy was unwanted – the elders had looked at him and said, "He is not healthy. Away with him." And he had been left out in the snow to die._

_A woman trudged through the snow, small by viking standards, but still she braved the freezing wind to find the child. She picked him up, and wrapped blankets around him. She brought him home. In the morning, the other villagers argued, and told her to bring the boy back. She never did._

_And eventually, the husband agreed. The boy would be raised. reluctantly, the elders allowed it, but the woman would have to be punished for her crime. She was sent away, and never allowed to return to Demean._

* * *

Yoseph dropped the bag on the table. He couldn't keep running away.

"You're so lucky!" Ben exclaimed again, as he followed Yoseph through the village.

"I know." Yoseph replied for the fiftieth time that day.

"I mean, most of us are lucky if we just get to see them go on a raid, but you actually get to help them catch dragons!"

"I know." Yoseph said again.

Ben continued, "You just don't see how lucky you are! Just two days, and already–"

"Ben," Yoseph interrupted, "Did you ever think that I might not _want_ to help Roc catch baby dragons?"

Ben looked quizzically at his old friend. "Uh – no."

"Well, three years away from Demean can change your perspective."

"But they locked you up! They made you work in the fields for nothing!" Ben replied

"It wasn't so bad. That's why I'm glad the – _We_ – don't take slaves. we'd probably treat them worse than our own sheep."

Yoseph walked away from Ben. The other boy had a stunned expression on his face.

He found his way to the circular crowd gathered around the launch site for the dragon riders. A ship had already cast off, and would meet the riders in a few days to carry their catch of dragons back to Demean. Yoseph had other plans.

He looked through the crowd, and spotted Ana, looking at the group of dragons in the center of the throng. He walked up behind her.

"Ana."

She turned around, and smiled at him. "Yoseph! I was looking for you."

"Ana, could you do me a favor?" Yoseph asked.

"Sure." She replied. "What?"

Yoseph took Ceara's scale out of his pocket. Though he knew he would need its luck today, he still had to leave something to come back to, now that he knew he could find his mother. Hopefully this would help him clean up the mess he was about to create.

"Could you hold on to this for me?" He asked, holding it up.

Ana lifted he hand and took it, slowly. "I remember this," She said. "What is it, anyway?"

"Just a rock." Yoseph shrugged. "A good luck charm."

Ana looked up from the scale to question him further, but he abruptly turned and walked through the crowd to the circle of riders in the middle.

When he approached Roc, the older man slapped him on the back. "Sorry, Yoseph, but you'll have to ride with Cedric over there. You're not quite big enough for your own dragon yet."

"Great" Yoseph said, trying to muster some enthusiasm.

"Don't worry, we all know you're excited. The first flight's always the scariest, but Cedric's one of the best. Did you hear about his landing last week? Any of my other riders would have lost the dragon."

"I heard." Yoseph replied. He noted how Roc didn't include himself as one who would have lost the dragon.

He walked up to Cedric. _Maybe he's really not so bad, _Yoseph thought. After all, anyone would have been in a bad mood after falling into a forest from dragon-back.

The boy flinched as the man in question tugged on his dragon's wing-strap, extracting a pained roar. His idea was immediately proven fallacious.

* * *

"If you stare at that thing any longer, you're gonna go blind."

Several hours had passed since Yoseph and the other riders had left, and Ana was lying next to a rock near the sea. Her mind registered that it was near the same ledge she had sat on with Yoseph yesterday. To her great displeasure, Ben had decided to join her.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" She asked.

The boy shrugged. "Nope."

Ana continued turning the stone over in her hand, and puzzling over its meaning. "Where do you think he got it, anyway?"

Ben looked over his shoulder to glimpse the article she was talking about. "Who knows? He hasn't been the same since he got back."

Ana sat in silence for a moment. "Do you think being a slave for so long hurt him? I mean, his mind?"

"It didn't seem like it was that bad. He's just. . . Different. It seems like he got better at fighting while he was gone. And the way he fought that dragon was – weird."

Ana sat bolt upright. "He fought a dragon?" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, even Roc was impressed. That's why he brought Yoseph along, and left everyone else."

Ana lifted the stone and stared into it again, as if it could answer all the questions about the strange boy.

* * *

Astrid curled tighter in her blanket as a pinecone fell and hit her. She opened her eyes and slowly began to wake up. It had been a warm night, so the children had elected to sleep outside.

The viking girl walked to the edge of camp, where the line of forest disappeared to show a bright orange sunrise. After a brief while, Toothless looked up from his resting place, and Hiccup gently slid off his back, still sleeping. The dragon joined Astrid. The two exchanged a knowing glance, before looking back to watch the horizon change from sunrise orange to a dim yellow.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Astrid turned around to see Carmine sitting on a rock, fletching new arrows for her bow. In the large amount of idle time they had, she had broken nearly all of the ones she had brought.

"Yes." Astrid replied. She looked back to the horizon.

"When do you think Yoseph will be back? We haven't found anything we can use against the Demen yet."

"He usually doesn't take this long." Carmine answered. "Something will happen eventually."

After the sun was up, the camp slowly began to awaken. Toothless nudged Hiccup until he woke up, and Snotlout woke surrounded by the trenches that had been made from logs constantly being placed in the same spot. One of the furies sat contentedly next to the growing pile of firewood.

"Alright!" Carmine declared once most of the camp had woken. "We're going to do some training today."

"I don't want to train." Tuffnut complained.

"Tough luck." Carmine said curtly. She picked a stick off the ground and pointed at Snotlout and Tuffnut. "Boys against girls. First team to find and tag the others wins. Hiccup - " She waved her hand - "You can just go flying if you want."

Hiccup frowned, and began walking towards Toothless. Astrid glared at Carmine, and ran to him.

"Hiccup, we can all stay if you want. It's no big deal."

Hiccup turned around. "It's fine, Astrid."

In the background, Fishlegs snored loudly, still asleep next to his gronkle. Hiccup turned to look at them. "Besides, Fishlegs will keep me company."

Astrid hesitated, but began walking away when Snotlout called, "Hey lovebirds! We're leaving without you!"

She looked back just before entering the forest, then, disappeared after Carmine and Ruffnut.

"We're gonna destroy you!" Tuffnut exclaimed as he entered the woods across the camp.

"Nu-uh! We're gonna destroy you!" Ruffnut retorted.

Hiccup looked back at Fishlegs as he and his dragon continued to snore.

"Come on, Toothless." He said, walking away. "Let's go fly."

The dragon looked away as well, and excitedly followed.

Toothless was already saddled, and after Hiccup put on his harness, they were ready to fly.

They started at the stone pillars to the south of the island. They flew hard and fast, turning as close as they could to the rock faces, imitating Yoseph during their first chase, when he had jumped at Toothless and landed in the water to let his dragon get away.

They pulled up sharply before a column, and as they flew past the top, sent a flock of sea birds flying. Nearer to Berk, it might have been a brood of Terrible Terrors, but exotic dragons were rarer this far south.

At the apex of their glide, Toothless abruptly swiveled his head and changed the direction of their flight.

"Toothless?" Hiccup asked inquisitively, "What is it?"

The night fury looked back at his rider, and nodded his head in their direction of travel.

Hiccup stood up in his saddle, and gazed down at the stone pillars. There were dark shapes moving between the pillars, higher than the water level, but below the top of the rock formations. Hiccup would never have spotted them if Toothless hadn't changed their course.

"Are they furies?" He asked.

Toothless bobbed his head eagerly.

Maybe the furies were coming back to the island - Hiccup and Toothless began circling around, moving lower and closer to the group of dragons.


End file.
